The value of forests

[Peter Smallidge]

The National Association of State Foresters, a group that supports the efforts of the state agency foresters throughout the country, conducted a survey of voters in 2011, the International Year of the Forest.  As reported in this article, there are some interesting economic impacts of forests:

"In a struggling economy, we can be optimistic about the quality of those jobs attributed to forests. In fact, the forest products industry accounts for about 5 percent of the total U.S. manufacturing GDP with industry companies producing $175 billion in products annually and employing nearly 900,000 people. This exceeds employment levels in automotive, chemicals and plastics.

The forest-product industry is among the top 10 manufacturing employers in 48 states. Every 1,000 acres of private, working forest creates an average of eight jobs, $270,000 in annual payroll, $9,850 in annual state taxes and $733,000 in annual sales."

More information on this subject and the survey is available at http://celebrateforests.com/learn/facts-information with sources listed at the bottom of the page.