Note that the data published in the 2002 State of the Nation’s Ecosystems Report as well as the 2003 and 2005 Web-Only Updates have been superseded by the 2008 Report and thus should be used with caution. For the most recent data, purchase the 2008 Report from Island Press.

The Indicator

The Data

The data presented in this indicator are not directly comparable with the data presented in the growth and harvest indicator, because that indicator reports only the volume of “growing stock,” an inventory category that excludes certain trees and parts of trees.

Data Source: Data on forest products and their source were collected by the USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program and the Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory, which also supplements these data with information from U.S. Department of Commerce published reports and industry trade association sources.

Data Collection Methodology: The FIA collects data through a large-scale field sampling program, described in the technical note on forest area and ownership (p. 239). Also included here are data from periodic Forest Service wood facility surveys, residential fuelwood surveys, studies of active logging operations, and field inventories of harvested trees.

Data Manipulation: FIA field data are used to estimate harvest distributions by ownership based on trees harvested for products. The Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory also conducts utilization studies on active logging operations to estimate wood usage for products and residues left in the woods. These data are merged with log receipt data from wood-using facilities to produce estimates of timber and other material cut to deliver those logs to the facility. Ancillary data from the Department of Commerce on wood use and industry association data are used to validate information on the volume of trees cut annually to produce primary wood products such as sawlogs, pulpwood, veneer logs, fuelwood, and other wood products.

Data Quality /Caveats: Non-fuelwood product totals shown would generally have errors of less than ±10 percent. Data are from FIA wood facility surveys, which are full industry canvasses and are thus assumed to have negligible sampling error. Periodic residential fuelwood studies generally have errors of ±15%. These data are not directly comparable with the data presented in the “Growth and Harvest” indicator, because that indicator reports only the volume of “growing stock,” an inventory category that excludes “trees of poor form or quality and the upper central stem” (U.S. Department of Agriculture definition).

Data Access: All data are available free of charge, except for products that require special processing or shipping fees. Electronic databases are unavailable at the national level before 1987, and most regional data from before 1977 are not available electronically. Forest statistics, online databases, and a map of U.S. forest distributions are on the Web at http://fia.fs.fed.us. Forest Products Laboratory data synthesizing Department of Commerce and industry trade association data are available at http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us. Additional data on wood products use may be found at http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/.

2003 Web Site Update: Data for 2002 were added in this update. Data were acquired from the Forest Service; see additional information under “Data Access.”