The forester's lever: Industrial ecology and wood products

Abstract

Despite increases in the nation's population, affluence, and timber removals, US forest area has remained constant and timber inventory has risen 30 percent since 1952. Industrial ecology, which analyzes the flow of timber through systems of production and consumption, seeks to explain how that happened; it also shows the leverage that consumers, millers, and foresters have to reduce harvested area and continue the rebirth of the American forest. Changes in demand by consumers, wood utilization by millers, and management by foresters can help conserve forests for uses other than timber. Of the three actors, however, foresters can exert the most leverage-by increasing the growth rate of trees.