Authors: |
James T. Bones, David R. Dickson |
Year: |
1974 |
Type: |
Resource Bulletin |
Station: |
Northern Research Station |
Source: |
Resour. Bull. NE-37. Upper Darby, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station. 19p. |
Abstract
United States consumption of paper currently stands at 640 pounds per person annually and this rate will no doubt increase if the Nation's economy booms. The pulp and paper industry is approaching a crisis similar to that of the oil industry, because they have expanded the capacity of their existing facilities to the limit and must now get on with the job of building new ones. The Northeast has been particularly hard put because many of its older facilities were deemed detrimental to the environment and were shut down. A major challenge that faces the industry is to determine the best means of catching up with and satisfying increased future demand, while at the same time assuring an adequate return on the huge capital investment that will be needed. The rising cost of raw materials has become an important consideration in studying the feasibility of constructing new facilities. Such long-term solutions as expanding forest productivity by planting superior trees, fertilizing high-potential stands, and reclaiming submarginal farmlands for forestry do not provide the solution to today's wood shortages. The short-term solution that now seems most promising is the improvement of wood yield by pulping whole trees. Total-tree chipping boosts wood harvesting productivity and improves the per-acre fiber yield because the branchwood, topwood, bark, and leaves are recovered as well as the stemwood. In addition, fiber can be recovered from trees that in the past would have been considered too small or too rough to utilize, because such trees now are chipped at the harvesting site. Several total-tree harvesters were operating in the Northeast in 1973. One such harvester (see cover picture) was chipping mixed hardwoods in an Ohio land-clearing operation and selling the chips to a nearby kraft pulpmill. Spokesmen at the mill say that the monetary loss from a decrease in pulp yield and an increase in the chemicals used can be more than offset by lower costs from automated harvesting and chip handling.
Citation
Bones, James T.; Dickson, David R. 1974. Pulpwood production in the Northeast - 1973. Resour. Bull. NE-37. Upper Darby, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station. 19p.