Page 1 - White Paper

Working Draft
Recapturing and Creating Forest Markets for the
2012
A White Paper Prepared by The National Association of State Foresters-Forest Markets Committee
UNiTEd STATES
FEBRUARY
The first decade of the twenty- first century proved volatile for
the wood products manufacturing and forestry subsectors of the economy. Many factors, including national and global economic downturns and the weakening value of the U.S. dollar played a role. Public policy can enhance or impede wood markets through tax codes, incentives, environmental regulations, trade agreements and more. Where at all possible, national policy should enhance wood markets and production
to maximize jobs and overall economic impact as well as care for environmental and societal needs.
Strong markets for wood products retain and create jobs, stimulate the economy as well as pay for sustainable, environmentally sound forestry.
Tracking The Decline in MarkeTs
Best estimates indicate the U.S. lost five percent of it’s previous 40- year 25 percent share of the global industrial roundwood market (not including fuelwood), according
to the Southern Forest Resource Assessment. Domestic production dropped 27 percent from 2005 to 2009, tracking with a recessionary
The NASF- Forest Markets Committee (FMC) is committed to working with all forestry advocates to analyze important factors contributing to declining markets for the wood products sector
and identify policies that can be modified to support a recovery
of the U.S. global forest products market share.
dip in U.S. consumption of wood products by 29 percent for the same period. The wood products and forestry sectors suffered from the 55 percent decline in housing starts, from a peak in 2005 of 2,068,000 to just 906,000 in 2008.
Bill Luppold, economist with the USDA Forest Service Research
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