HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Timber has played an important role in the development and material progress of the United States since the first native Americans cleared forests to plant maize, improve wildlife habitat, build shelter, cook food, heat homes, and create modes of transportation.

With the settlement and development of America by European settlers, this dramatically increased land clearing and the utilization of timber for building houses, barns, fences, bridges, and dams. Timber began to be used in the production of iron, and for powering locomotives, steamboats, and stationary engines. In those days, most forests were not replanted, but rather converted for agricultural use. Land that could not support agriculture due to steep terrain or high elevation naturally regenerated back to forests.

In 1600, U.S. forests covered about one billion acres, or about 46 percent of the U.S. land area, including Alaska. Following settlement and colonization by Europeans, demand for natural resources, particularly timber, rose significantly. Farmers cleared forests at the rate of 13 square miles a day.

By the early 1900’s, certain structural changes began to reduce the need to clear forestland. The transition from the use of animals to the use of machinery on farms reduced the need for timber. Furthermore, the use of hybrid crops and fertilizer dramatically improved agriculture yields. Finally, the advent of coal for fuel in the early 1900’s reduced the demand for wood. In the 1800’s, approximately 80 percent of timber was used for fuel, but as the country began to use more coal, and then oil, timber used for fuel fell to about 10 percent. Along with these structural changes, the forest products industry itself began to experience changes. Between 1850 and 1920, total output increased eight times, from 5.4 billion board feet to 44.5 billion board feet. Better processing technologies emerged. The development of wood science helped create a wide variety of products that lasted longer and consumed less wood.

With the increasing emphasis on conservation, the national forest system was established in 1915. The national forests in the West, comprising 162 million acres, were carved out of the public domain. At that time, no national forests in the East were created, as the public domain forests had been transferred to private ownership before the conservation movement prompted land set-asides. The Eastern national forests were created later by federal acquisition of depleted farmsteads, tax delinquent lands, and cutover and burned forests. Due to these efforts, today U.S. forests encompass 747 million acres or about 70 percent of the amount that had existed in 1600.