America’s forests currently produce over 80 million cubic metres of sawn timber a year, making them the largest producers in the world. About 10 per cent of this timber is exported overseas.
Modern forest management ensures not only that felled trees are replaced, but that every year more wood is grown in US forests than is harvested. As a result, the US has more trees today than 70 years ago. 1.6 billion seedlings are planted in the US every year, the equivalent of 4.4 million trees every single day of the year.
There are two certification systems in the US:
PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) and
FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)
FSC certifies 66 million hectares of land across North America, while PEFC endorses SFI (Sustainable Forest Initiative) and ATFS (American Tree Farm System), making up 110 million hectares of certified lands across North America.
There are two main types of certification:
Forest management, which certifies the forest area is sustainably managed Chain of Custody (CoC), which is a record-keeping process to provide evidence of an unbroken chain from forest to product.
For details of members who supply certified Southern Yellow Pine, visit Southern Pine Global.
For details of members who supply certified Douglas fir, Western Red Cedar and other species from Western United States, visit here.