Timber Harvesting
Timber harvesting is the physical cutting and removal of trees or parts of trees from a given forested site. Harvested timber, or cut and removed trees, is the raw material for items made of wood, such as lumber, plywood, paper, and other products. Timber harvesting may occur on private, federal, or nonfederal publicly owned lands, and may be conducted by the landowner or by another entity they allow to do so. Most timber harvesting in the United States is conducted on private lands: in 2011, 88% of timber harvests were conducted on private lands, and in 2012, 90% of wood and paper products in the United States originated on private lands.

Why the Forest Service
Lands managed by the FS, the National Forest System (NFS), are managed under a multiple use sustained yield model pursuant to the Multiple Use-Sustained Yield Act of 1960 (MUSYA). This statute directs FS to balance multiple uses of their lands and ensure a sustained yield of those uses in perpetuity. Congress, through the National Forest Management Act (NFMA), has directed FS to engage in long-term land use and resource management planning. Plans set the framework for land management, uses, and protection; they are developed through an interdisciplinary process with opportunities for public participation. In the case of timber, they describe where timber harvesting may occur and include measures of sustainable timber harvest levels. FS uses these plans to guide implementation of individual sales, which generate revenue. Congress has specified various uses for this revenue. 

Origins of Forest Service Timber harvesting
Most of the lands contained in the modern Forest Service were reserved from the public lands in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in what were first called “forest reserves.” 12 The forest reserves were initially managed by the DOI and later moved to the USDA and the Forest Service. Through the Organic Administration Act, Congress specified that the purpose of these forests was to “improve and protect the forest within the reservation … and to furnish a continuous supply of timber for the use and necessities of the citizens of the United States,” in addition to protecting water flows. The act authorized timber sales of “dead, matured or large growth of trees” and set out procedures for conducting them. Congress expanded the purposes for the national forests, and developed management goals to achieve those purposes, through the Multiple Use-Sustained Yield Act of 1960 (MUSYA).16 Congress added the provision of fish and wildlife habitat, recreation, energy and mineral development, and livestock grazing as official purposes of the national forests, in addition to timber harvesting and watershed protection. To supply these activities, management of the forests’ resources is to be organized for multiple uses in a “harmonious and coordinated” manner that considers the combination of uses that best meets the needs of the American people, not that necessarily yields the largest dollar return or output. The act also directs a sustained yield of products and services, meaning high-level regular output in perpetuity without impairing the lands’ productivity.
Source: Congressional Research Services