The economic recession affected southern forests and related industries substantially, particularly those sectors most closely related to home construction. Between 2005 and 2009, for example, the three primary forestry sectors-wood manufacturing, paper manufacturing, and forestry and logging-lost more than 110,000 jobs in the southern United States. This article assesses the effects of the recession on the southern U.S. by reviewing existing data related to economic and resource impacts, including employment, timber product output, production facilities, state economies, exports, and forest area and management activities. While all sectors were affected, wood products and furniture manufacturing experienced the greatest change. As a result of the downturn, the South's forest sector's direct contribution to the regional economies decreased by 24 percent between 2004 and 2009. Some developments such as rebounding paper consumption, expanding export markets, and bioenergy, however, offer potential growth opportunities for the future.

Between 2012 and 2017, southern wood pellet exports grew by approximately 180 percent, whereas the regions’ wood pellet mill capacity increased from 3.8 to 7.7 million tons over the same period. This capacity and production growth generates concerns regarding impacts on resource sustainability and to traditional forest industries that use feedstocks similar to those used by pellet mills. Information on wood pellet producers’ patterns and levels of roundwood consumption can help evaluate the potential impacts of the industry on the forest resource. We use mill-level data collected by the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station Forest Inventory and Analysis program to help characterize activity by southern wood pellet mills that consume roundwood. Our analysis shows that the volume of roundwood used for pellet production has increased, representing close to 2 percent of all southern timber products output and 27 percent of all industrial fuelwood output (excluding firewood) during 2015.

Pulp, paper, and paperboard mills consume close to 52 percent of southern roundwood, providing a significant market to southern forest landowners. Declining numbers of pulpwood-using mills and downward trends in mill capacity, however, present a growing challenge to the southern forest sector. Shrinking mill capacity affects rural communities that depend on mill demand for labor and other production inputs. This study investigates the effect of pulp mill closures on the regional and local economy, focusing on the spillover effects to forestry and forest products industry. Multiregional input–output models were built for two mill closures using Impact Analysis for Planning (IMPLAN) showing linkages among different sectors, households, and governments in the regional economy. Results revealed the different effects across wood procuring zones with areas displaying significant loss in logging activity. Significance to other forestry-related industries depended on closed mills' inputs. We compared our results with information available in the literature regarding expected economic impact from a wood pellet mill, an alternative market for small-size wood. We expect research results will provide valuable information to policymakers and managers when addressing likely future changes in the paper manufacturing industry.

The analysis in this article provides an update on the southern forest sector economic activity after the downturn experienced in 2008-2009. The analysis was conducted using Impact Analysis for Planning (IMPLAN) software and data sets for 2009 and 2011 and results from the USDA Forest Service Timber Products Output latest survey of primary wood processing mills. Although improving economic conditions are reflected by increased mill roundwood consumption during 2011, the forest industry's economic contribution improved slightly but not across all states. At the regional scale, the sector displayed a downward trend in employment, value added, and number of active primary mills.

According to the latest available forest resource estimates, approximately 40 percent of the roundwood harvested in the United States is utilized in the production of solid wood products and 38 percent in the production of wood pulp for paper and paper products (Oswalt and others 2019). The demand for solid wood products is motivated by activity in end-use markets such as new housing construction and furniture manufacturing. The demand for paper and paperboard products arises by activity in a wide range of industries, from businesses that need to print paper to the retailer's demand for wrapping paper and boxes used in shipping, among others. This report provides trends in U.S. forest products consumption, production, and trade to assess the forest products sector status to date. We find the U.S. construction sector remains the leading consumer of solid wood products, accounting for nearly 66 percent of all solid wood products consumption in 2019. As such, we observe the production of solid wood products closely following trends in the construction sector activity. Consumption of pulp and paperboard products shows a persistent downward trend primarily due to the increasing adoption of electronic media in place of newsprint, writing papers, and printing papers. Paper products consumption per capita during 2019 was nearly 60 percent below the level observed in 1999. Paperboard consumption per capita has declined as well, but at a slower rate.