Lumber Industry

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LUMBER INDUSTRY

Lumber was probably America's first industry. The first sawmill was constructed in 1608 in Jamestown, Virginia, to meet the lumber needs of the colonists. Since an abundant supply was generated in the first year that the sawmill was operational, Captain John Smith managed to export a shipment of lumber and related products to England.

For the early American settlers, lumbering remained essentially a local business. Transporting logs and lumber to another settlement was a difficult and unprofitable undertaking. Trees were cut in the winter when the hard packed, frozen ground provided a hard, smooth surface to transport the logs to nearby springs and lakes. The logs remained there until the spring thaw and then were floated to the sawmill by loggers. This seasonal approach to logging provided winter employment to many farmers, allowing them to cut down the trees that would shade their crops during the spring and summer.

During colonial times, New England was the center of this industry. As the population of the United States grew, so too did the demand for lumber. Soon the industry had expanded to include Pennsylvania and New York. By the second half of the nineteenth century, the lumber industry gradually made a westward and then southward move. White pine was now being cut in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Long timbers for use as masts on ships, originally produced in Maine, were now also beginning cut in Oregon and Washington. Southern forests provided oak for warships like "Old Ironsides," and lumber by-products such as tar and turpentine were produced from the pine forests of the Carolinas. The primary use for wood, however, remained as a practical and economical fuel source.

During the Industrial Revolution, immense growth experienced by the United States increased the need for lumber and for a technology that could supply it cheaply and quickly. The steam engine satisfied that need by making the sawmills less dependent on water and weather. The steamboats could transport wood products rapidly and travel against the current. Steam also replaced water wheels as an internal power source for sawmills. Up to this point most of the rivers that were used to transport the logs had also powered the sawmills. During the usually harsh winters these waters were frozen, and the wheels were useless. The steam engine allowed sawmills to operate year-round and gave sawmill owners the freedom to locate their businesses as far as they wished from the flowing rivers on which they were previously dependent. The ability to build a sawmill in any location allowed for expansion into the West.

Since this industry was based solely on the existence of trees, it created a unique situation. Trees provided a renewable resource—unlike oil, coal, or other sources of fuel—as well as useful items such as furniture and building materials. Lumber became the basis for a multidisciplinary and diversified industry that could produce a variety of products. This can best be explained by defining the lumber industry as the "production and harvesting of trees for various uses." The lumber industry mainly refers to the businesses that processed trees into lumber products. This industry promoted the establishment of other industries to convert timber into fuel, chemicals, pulp, paper, and other products.

The development of tools needed to cut and process lumber developed with the growth of the lumber industry. Saws were produced in many types and sizes, from smaller, lighter, hand-held models to large, industrial band saws used in factories. The advent of thinner saws made with high-grade steel that permitted a smaller kerf (cutting groove) reduced the amount of sawdust produced—boosting the efficiency of not only lumberjacks, but of lumber mills as well.

As the lumber industry (aided by technology) grew, it became apparent that the seemingly endless supply of timber could disappear. In 1895 the United States government created the Division of Forestry. One of its first decisions (in 1897) was to authorize forest reserves. By the late 1990s forestland ownership was divided into four different categories.

First, private non-industry lands owned by farmers and other individuals provide living areas, small amounts of food, and sources of private income. Corporations make up a small portion of this category as well. For example, businesses such as power companies "give back" land used in the past, converting these into recreational areas such as privately owned parks designed for public use.

Second, federally owned and protected national forests make up of millions of acres of mostly untouched wilderness and preserves. These massive areas are off-limits to the lumber industry and provide safe habitation for wildlife. Federally owned lands provide other environmental needs as well. Trees provide a majority of the Earth's oxygen and consuming carbon dioxide; this action leads directly to cleaner air and a safer environment.

Third, local governments provide public lands as well. In some cases the land was donated to local governments by philanthropists, giving cities and towns the privilege of having an area of forest wilderness to use for recreational and other purposes.

Fourth, private industrial lands maintain appropriate logging techniques, conservation, and the protection of wildlife while operating commercial lumber business. Enterprises such as the U.S. Timber Company attempt to plan for the years ahead by practicing conservation measures and maintaining tree farms so that harvested forests can be replanted. The Division of Forestry monitors such companies. Between two and three billion trees are reforested in the United States each year thanks to these efforts. This large number is planted so that the amount of trees grown are greater than the number of trees harvested, lost to disease, and consumed by parasites. Technology has evolved to the extent that an estimated 99 percent of all tree byproducts are used.

In the late 1990s the chief lumber producing countries were the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Germany, Poland, France, Finland, and Brazil. The United States and Russia accounted for more than 40 percent of the world's annual production of lumber at the end of the twentieth century.

See also: Weyerhauser