Forest Products

• North Carolina is a leading forestry state nationally.
  
• Nearly 62%- 19.9 million acres of NC is forested. Due to regeneration and planting programs, the net annual forest growth rate is approximately 21%.
  
• During the 1990s, tree planting in NC averaged 118,700 acres per year.
  
• In 2001, $138,200,000 worth of wood products was exported from North Carolina.
  
• The wood products industry employs approximately 18% of the state's manufacturing workers. The annual payroll for the forest industry totaled $3.8 billion in 2002.
  
• Sales of Forest Products in NC totaled $19 billion (2003).
  
• The forest products industry, excluding furniture production, is the fourth largest manufacturing industry in the state and represented 7.5% of the manufacturing work force in 2003.
  
• Employment in the NC Forest Products Industry can be broken down as follows:
  

  • Persons employed in Forestry- 3,987
    
  • Lumber and Wood Products- 45,485
    
  • Paper and Allied Products- 23,801
    
  • Total- 73,273 jobs
    
• Wood Product Manufacturing for NC exceeded $4.8 billion in 2003.

Sources: American Forest and Paper Association (2003), NC Cooperative Extension Service (2002), and U.S. Department of Commerce Economic and Statistics Administration (2004)