Ongoing Forest Service research projects the future of our forests

USDA Forest Service today released a scientific report on the status of our nation’s forest resources. The knowledge gained will assist Forest Service managers and its partners to maintain and enhance resource conditions and forest health. The report, “An Analysis of the Timber Situation in the United States: 1952-2050,” is the fifth in a series of Forest Service scientific studies on the status and trends of the nation’s forest resources. 

• More wood is being grown than harvested nationally, a trend that is expected to continue even as wood production and consumption increase substantially in the U.S.; 
• U.S. consumption of forest products will increase faster than population growth, but at a slower pace than in recent years, rising 40 percent by 2050; 
• Imports will satisfy about one-third of the projected increase in U.S. wood and paper products demand; the balance will be supplied by increased timber harvest in the U.S., primarily from softwood plantations in the South; 
• Paper products and wood composites will capture an increased share of the forest products market, as compared to solid wood products; and 
• U.S. forests will continue to change in structure and composition, most strikingly in terms of increased age and density of forests on public lands.