ABSTRACT
The role of forests in the American society and economy has changed greatly over the past 200 years, as is evidenced by data on acreage in forests, on volume of standing timber, on amount of annual wood growth, on amounts and form of wood utilization, and on prices for forest products. The two most dramatic facts in a long history of forest utilization have been the near fourfold increase in annual wood growth in the past 60 years and the persistent and major underestimate by the US Forest Service of the wood production potential of American forests. The current concern over forest policy, including policy with respect to the national forests, focuses on the recent past, the present, and the relatively near future to a degree that threatens to obscure longer and more basic trends in American forestry. Lumber, plywood, and paper are processed intermediate commodities made from wood, and their prices reflect inputs other than wood.
