BALANCING GROWTH, HARVEST, AND CONSUMPTION: A REGIONAL RESPONSE TO THE NATIONAL ISSUE OF FOREST SUSTAINABILITY

摘要

The 46 million people who live in the North Central Region of the United States account for about 17 percent of the wood annually consumed in the United States. The region contains 14 percent of the nation's timberland, but annual timber growth is equivalent to only 10 percent of nation's total. Annual timber harvest is equivalent to only 7 percent of the nation's total. Failure to balance growth and harvest with consumption of forest resources in one region shifts the impacts of harvesting and production to other regions of the U.S. or to other countries. It also exports the environmental and social consequences associated with the timber harvest (both the positive and the negative consequences). The U.S. is a net importer of wood products, and wood consumption is expected to increase by up to 40 percent in the next 50 years as population increases. Local decisions about wood production and consumption can have far reaching consequences.