What about the forests?

I came across an old blog today that had an interesting summary of the National Forests and the effects of harvesting for manufacturing. I've always known about these numbers but to see it in black and white was very encouraging. I thought you might like to see for yourself...

United States Forestry facts:

FACT: Forests cover over one third of all land in the United States.
FACT: Over 72% of hardwood forests in the United States are privately owned.
FACT: Over 70% of forest land that was here in 1600 is still forest…over 737 million acres!
FACT: In 1952 the volume of timberlands in the US was 184,090 (in million cubic feet)
FACT: In 1999 the volume increased to 335,722 (million cubic feet) an increase of 82.4%
FACT: Forests in the US are increasing at an average rate of 5.27 BILLION cubic feet per year AFTER mortality and harvesting!

Total growth…12.22 Billion cubic feet
Mortality……..<2.50> Billion cubic feet
Harvest……….<4.45> Billion cubic feet

FACT: Harvest has over doubled (102%) since 1952 and we are STILL showing growth in our forests.
FACT: There is 82% more growing timber in the US now then in 1952
FACT: Over 1.5 billion trees are planted in the US every year…that’s 4.1 million seedlings per day!
FACT: Each year 6 trees are planted for every 1 that is harvested.
FACT: 43,700 companies in the US employ 1.75 million workers.
FACT: Wood is recyclable, biodegradable and durable, lasting often for centuries and can be returned to the earth at anytime with a benefit to the earth!
FACT: Wood is renewable while stone, iron or coal once used is gone forever.
FACT: Wood makes up 47% of all industrial raw materials used in the US yet require only 4% of the energy used to produce these materials!
FACT: Steel structure materials require 3 times as much energy and 16 times as much clean water to produce then wood.
FACT: As an insulator, wood is 16 times more efficient as concrete, 415 times as efficient as steel and over 2000 times as efficient as aluminum!

There is also a lot of great info over here about Reforestation and why it is so important, which you may or may not realize. It's good to know that what we are a part of, is good for our environment!