|
Wood Availability |
|
|
|
|
Wood Availability |
|
|
|
Resource Trends on a Per Capita Basis
As noted earlier, during the twenty-five-year period from 1997 to 2002, the area of hardwood forest per capita in the United States declined from 1.19 to 1.01 acres, or 15 percent, despite the fact that the area of hardwood forest increased by some 27 million acres. The per capita decline was wholly due to a 31 percent or 68 million person increase in the U.S. population over that 25-year period.
The rapid decline in forest area per capita notwithstanding, both hardwood growing stock and sawtimber inventories increased on a per capita basis over the past quarter century, providing dramatic evidence of the rate at which forest growth has exceeded removals in recent decades. In both cases, however, a drop in inventory was noted between 1997 and 2002 that could portend the beginning of a downward trend, particularly in view of the slowing rate of additions to timber inventory, as discussed in an earlier section of this report, and unabated population growth.
One scenario that could help to stabilize per capita inventory numbers is a decline in per capita consumption of hardwood products. Per capita consumption of both hardwood roundwood and lumber rose through about 1987 but has leveled off since then (the large rise in per capita consumption of hardwood roundwood between 1970 and 1976 resulted from marked increases in fuelwood consumption after the oil shocks of the early 1 970s). What could be the beginning of a declining trend in per capita consumption in the most recent reporting period can be seen in both the hardwood roundwood and hardwood lumber consumption data; however, the effect of the recent economic recession confounds definitive identification of a trend change.
