The forestry industry in the United States has shifted from the Pacific Northwest to the South during the past two decades, all thanks to owls.
Rich Vlosky, director of the LSU AgCenter’s Louisiana Forest Products Development Center, said national forests in the West were traditionally the nation’s top producers of timber. But the Northern Spotted Owl, which is native to the Northwest, was listed as a threatened species in 1990, and logging in national forests was banned soon after.
As processing plants shut down and workers lost jobs, the forestry industry turned to the South, which Vlosky said is the “wood basket” of the U.S. because it is heavily forested, and logging and sawmills have long had a presence in the region. However, the South was never the leader because production in states such as Oregon and Washington took place on a greater scale.
The South’s flat terrain and ports with access to the Mississippi River lowered production costs, Vlosky said. In particular, the region drew producers of wood pellets — compressed sawdust that is used for fuel.
Vlosky said wood pellets’ popularity has skyrocketed in the past decade in Europe, where government energy mandates have made pellets a popular fuel for power plants and heating systems. The U.S. is the largest provider of pellets and the European Union is the largest demander, he said.
From The Daily Reveille: https://www.lsureveille.com/news/u-s-forestry-industry-experiences-move-to-the-south/article_1c88ec30-5c7f-11e3-911c-001a4bcf6878.html