The South Carolina forest industry is making a comeback. The state’s forests are fuller than at any time in the past 100 years, just as demand for wood is very slowly on the rise and prices also are creeping up.
That could portend a pine harvest boom in the next seven years and trigger the most significant seedling replant of the 21st century in the state, forestry experts say – depending upon how fast the U.S. housing market comes back.
A new study, set to be released next month, predicts the 20 million-ton annual wood harvest rate in the Palmetto State will increase by between 4 million and 8 million more tons by 2020, a 20 percent to 40 percent increase.
That, of course, is good news for tree growers, who have been sitting on a couple of decades or more worth of harvest-ready softwoods, as they rode out the Great Recession and the struggle to begin recovery from it.
“We are excited to see that the study shows increased total wood availability for many years to come,” said state forester Henry Kodama, of the South Carolina Forestry Commission. “South Carolina’s forest industry and forests are critical to the state’s economic and environmental health.”
From The Charlotte Observer: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/09/15/4316614/sc-forestry-industry-making-a.html#.Ujchp7wd6y4