Science for productive forests: Assessing economics, markets, and supply chains
The strength of America’s forest sector did not happen by accident. Public and private investments that encourage active forest management and research to maximize results has enabled the forest products industry to become among the top 10 manufacturing employers in 45 states. Forest Service scientists help managers delineate acres available for timber harvest in dynamic environments, enable decision makers to prepare for present and future markets, and develop new ways to use woody material in our economy, including in the transportation and energy sectors.
Wisconsin’s tribal communities remain competitive in the solid sawn lumber market and ensure healthy forests through active forest management.
The Resources Planning Act Assessment’s global forest sector market model (FOROM) provides market projections for different regions of the United States and globally. FOROM is currently being used to examine the potential implications of expanded national forest timber harvests and evolving trade policies on the price, production, and trade of timber and manufactured products.
Projections of the profitability of timber, biomass, and fuels projects helps managers choose the best course of action, and agency researchers provide the tools they need to assess their options. For example, the Forest Residues Transportation Costing Model and the Delivered Cost Model compare costs of hauling biomass to processing plants using different equipment and routes. The biomass procurement Raster Utility tool allows managers to calculate the volume and delivered cost of biomass in a given harvest area. The tool even allows users to input regional costs to account for fluctuating machine rates and gate prices. The agency’s timber tax tips resource helps forest owners to manage their money wisely.
USDA Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz visits the Alaska Peak Timber Sale on the Tahoe National Forest, May 6, 2025.
As demand for wood products grows, scientists are looking to the cities rather than the forests to supplement wood supply. Recent estimates show that nearly 7.2 billion board feet of lumber from urban areas end up discarded in landfills or mulched as wood chips each year. By using urban Forest Inventory and Analysis data, our scientists are organizing wood reutilization hubs to spur economic development and bolster domestic supply.
When our scientists produce economic feasibility studies—like the one projecting the future wood supply on the Salmon-Challis National Forest—they can replicate their methods to aid active forest management planning in other places. Researchers have also helped develop markets for wood waste and slash with a feasibility analysis of biomass markets in Arizona, New Mexico, and southern Colorado. And when the costs of transporting forest biomass exceed benefits, our scientists help to discover and to develop alternatives, like biochar applications.
The Santa Fe National Forest worked with the Pueblo of Jemez on to reduce the threat of wildland fire through hazardous fuels removal, promote forest health through reducing insect infestation and disease, and harvest timber that goes to the tribe’s nearby Walatowa Timber Industries mill.
With industry partners and other innovators, our scientists also discover and develop new ways to use woody material in the bioeconomy, including in the transportation and energy sectors.
Forest Service research has shown how large magnitude shocks, even if localized, can reverberate across regions and wood product markets due to interconnected supply chains and trade patterns. Our researchers found that a large wind event in the southern U.S. could generate 18.7 million cubic meters of salvage wood—over 4 percent of the typical national harvest. This pulse of salvage wood would crowd out conventional harvest activities and decrease prices, effects that could take 25 years to dissipate from markets.
Forest managers and timber industry leaders are adapting to changing forest conditions and moving away from the exclusive harvest of green trees and towards increased harvesting of dead trees and smaller materials. This shift requires modernized harvest operations and supply chain logistics. To aid this shift, our researchers hosted sessions on salvage logging, during which experts discussed the newest research and tools in the field.
A delimber removes limbs from trees and stacks salvaged timber from the 2024 Flat Fire in a pile for the next step in processing on the Boise National Forest.
Our research enables forest managers to predict which trees are likely to die and plan for salvage and other management activities. With this research, foresters can develop postfire tree-marking guidelines to assist crews laying out salvage sales on every national forest. On the Bitterroot National Forest, this work allowed crews to continue a commercial sale even after the area was burned by wildfire—sustaining timber company profits. Additionally, as part of our work with the Bioenergy Alliance Network of the Rockies, our scientists studied ways to make salvage operations in beetle-killed stands more efficient and safer.
Extreme weather can disrupt timber markets by damaging trees marked for sale. Our researchers determined how large-scale forest disturbances generate timber salvage and how these events affect current and future markets. They also developed a new acoustic testing method to identify salvageable timber after a windstorm. This research improves upon typical testing methods that simply rely on how a tree looks and helps loggers avoid delivering damaged goods to mills. In Puerto Rico, the list of sawmills we compiled enables those affected by disturbances to find the best place to process salvageable goods.
Our scientists aid forest landowners who are growing commodity crops such as loblolly pine and want to prepare for hurricanes. Additionally, our researchers help farmers, landowners, and industry partners best use downed material by organizing workshops and sharing information through videos and fact sheets.
