Things You Might Not Know About the Timber Industry

Photo Credit: Superior National Forest

If you like wood products like furniture and paneling or flooring, then you might be interested in some little known facts we found out about the timber industry. Some of these things will make you glad that you’re using wood and others will just surprise you. In fact, using wood is actually good for the environment if it’s harvested correctly and we found out that there are now more ways to ensure you’re getting legally harvested trees. Check out all the great articles on the timber industry below.

Seeing the Wood for the Trees

In this article posted on the Economist.com, we learn that there are now ways to make sure that the wood a business owner is selling and that you are buying has been cut down legally. That’s right DNA testing is no longer just the domain of CSI technicians anymore. Now the lumber you buy can be DNA tested to ensure that it’s from groves which are legal to harvest. While this is a great idea, there’s still more work that needs to be done to make this an effective process. For one thing, the tests are fairly pricey and for another thing, more DNA samples need to be taken from established legal forestry sites so that the results can be matched up correctly. This will put a big dent in the over thirty million dollar illegal logging industry. Get all the great information by reading the full article here.

Timber Industry: Cutting Down Trees Helps Environment

This article posted on npr.org is a transcript of host Jeff Brady’s interview with Chris West of the American Forest Resource Council and Ann Ingerson an Economics Research Associate with The Wilderness Society. The interview poses questions about the forest industry’s desire to take a more active role in gleaning old growth from forests in an effort to help in reducing our carbon footprint. In addition, the forestry group hopes to be able to increase its level of carbon credit points that it can then sell to other industries that are bigger polluters so they can use those credits. It’s no surprise that The Wilderness Society has issues with this, but when you read the full article here, you’ll see that they do eventually get closer to agreement, at least on some issues.

As Timber Industry Improves, Mills See Setbacks with Availability

If you live in Montana, chances are you either work for the wood industry or you know someone who does. That’s why when the industry picked up at the beginning of 2014, it was news and resulted in this article by Dillon Tabish for flatheadbeacon.com. This article lends credibility to a stand that the forest industry has been working on getting into main stream for years, which is that harvesting and managing forests will help them, and not managing those forests, leads to larger and more devastating forest fires. The statistics certainly do tend to agree with the forestry officials, but popular opinion has been slow to agree. The article goes into great detail about the Montana logging industry and you can read the full piece here.