Our forests and our trees are renewable resources.  Wood products come from a resource that grows, matures and is replanted and renewed for future generations.

An average single-family home contains over 13,000 board feet of lumber.  Ninety-four percent of all new homes are built with wood frames.

Wood is a more environmentally sensitive building material - from the raw material source to the construction site.

Wood is recyclable, biodegradable and durable, sometimes lasting for centuries.  When it is no longer needed, it can be returned to the earth.

While trees are renewable, each ton of iron ore, coal, or limestone removed is gone forever.

Wood products make up 47% of all industrial raw materials manufactured, yet use only 4% of energy needed to produce these materials.

Producing steel building materials consumes 3 times as much energy as wood building materials and 16 times as much clean water.

Manufacturing steel produces 31/2 times as much carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) as manufacturing wood.

Inch to inch, wood is 16 times more efficient as an insulator than concrete, 415 times as efficient as steel, and 2000 times as efficient as aluminum.

Annually, each person in the United States uses paper, lumber, and other wood products equivalent to one tree, 100 feet tall and 18 inches in diameter.

Hardwoods are used for making over 10,000 products. 

One-third of the United States is covered with trees.

Our hardwood forests are outgrowing us.  Net hardwood growth exceeds harvest by 60%.  In other words, we harvest only 64% of the net annual growth, leaving 36% to add to standing inventories.

Trees regenerate naturally through seeding or root sprouting, or are replanted by people.

Hardwoods are usually allowed to come back naturally.  Harvesting large, mature trees in a hardwood forest lets enough sunlight reach the forest floor to stimulate new growth.

Annually, over 1.5 billion trees are planted in the U.S. - more than 5 trees for every man, woman and child in America.  That averages 4.1 million seedlings each day.  

There are 82% more hardwoods in the U.S. today than in 1952.

Each year, six trees are planted for every one that is harvested.

More than 80% of new seedlings are planted by forest product companies and private timberland owners.  The rest are planted by federal and state agencies and individuals.

There are 737 million acres of forest in the U.S. - 70% of the forests that were here in 1600.

In the U.S., 43,700 companies employ 1.75 million people in wood products, paper, furniture and related product manufacturing.

These companies produce over $300 billion in forest products yearly.

Annual payroll for US forest products companies exceeds $51 billion, ranking among the top ten employers in 40 states.

Trees are oxygen factories.  An acre of  young, healthy trees will produce 4,280 pounds of oxygen and capture 5,880 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per year.

In growing one pound of wood, a tree will release 11/2 pounds of oxygen.

Dead and dying trees in old forests use up more oxygen than they produce.  The decay process requires oxygen use.

Cutting trees responsibly lessens the "greenhouse effect" on the environment because old and dying trees use more oxygen than they produce (and begin emitting carbon dioxide).

Forest management helps wildlife.  It creates more openings that stimulate new food sources and shelter.

Forest managers can guide forests toward old-growth structure, but because forests are dynamic, living systems they cannot be preserved forever.  Even a "preserved" forest will eventually succumb to fire, wind, insects or disease, and a new forest will grow in its place.