A little update I thought was interesting

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Understanding Trends and Challenges of the Forests of the US

Timber Talk March/April 2012 (http://www.dovetailinc.org/files/DovetailUSForests0312.pdf)

 About 1/3rd of the U.S. is forested and our total forest area of 751 million acres has been stable for
about 100 years
 We also have about 25 million acres of urban forests in the U.S.
 The U.S. timber growing volume has increased 51% since 1953
 Annual net forest growth surpasses harvest by as much as 72%
 The U.S has 3 times the amount of reserved forest land we had in 1953
 Private landowners in the U.S. plant 4 million trees per day (that's 5 trees each year for every man, woman and child in America!)

[Texas Ranger]

From the Texas Forest Service:  "A recent study by the USFS shows that since 2005, over 1,000 sawmills, 15 pulp mills, and almost 150 other primary mills in the south closed:  one fifth of all mills in the U.S. forest sector.  The remaining sawmills operated at 60% of their capacity between 2005-2009.  An estimated 300,000 full-time mill jobs were lost over the past five years."

[WDH]

Georgia was hard hit.  It used to be the top state (maybe with the exception of Oregon) for wood consumption.  During this same period, wood demand dropped by 25% from mill closing and idling capacity.  This has had a huge impact on the wood business.  Things have been very rough.