ABSTRACT
Mississippi’s forests cover approximately 8.1 × 106 ha and each year they generate over $1 billion worth of timber and related forest products (Munn and Tilley 2005). The forest products industries (logging, solid wood products, pulp and paper, and wood furniture manufacturing) on average process 3.6 × 107 m3 yr−1 (Howell et al. 2005; MAFES 2007; USDA 2007). The industry employed 54,853 people in 2001, roughly 3.7 per cent of the state’s total employment, and its impact on the state’s economy was about $13 billion (Munn and Tilley 2005). Wood furniture accounted for 44 per cent of these jobs, followed by the solid wood products industry (28 per cent), pulp and paper (13 per cent), and logging and miscellaneous forest products (15 per cent).
