The following is from a presentation "The Future of Wood Utilization," by Dr. Mark D. Gibson, Associate Director and Professor, School of Forestry, Louisiana Tech University, at the 20th Annual Ark-La-Tex Forestry Forum in Shreveport in March, 2004. The Forum is an annual event for forest landowners, forestry professionals, and others involved in the industry, sponsored by the Northwest Louisiana Forestry Advisory Committee and the LSU Cooperative Extension Service of the LSU AgCenter. Ricky Kilpatrick is Area Forestry Agent, and coordinator of the event.

By Mark D. Gibson
Louisiana Tech School of Forestry

In the 2003 publication, "An Analysis of the Timber Situation in the United States: 1952 to 2050," Haynes (Richard Haynes, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, OR) the following projections were made:

"Since 1952 U.S. timber harvest has risen by nearly 67 percent, accompanied by growing timber inventories on both public and private lands, but there has been a decline in the critical private timberland base.

"Consumption of forest products will continue to increase at a faster rate than our population; imports will satisfy more of our wood demand; paper products and composite wood products will gain in share of our consumption; and forests will continue to change in composition.

"The current assessment envisions forest products consumption rising 42 percent by 2050.

"In the period to 2050, annual U.S. timber harvest is projected to increase 24 percent to 22.4 billion cubic feet. Softwood harvest is projected to increase to 13.7 billion cubic feet, and hardwoods to 8.8 billion cubic feet. Most of the expected increase in harvest will come from managed stands primarily in the South. By 2050, about 60 percent of the softwood timber harvest from private timberlands will come from plantations.

"Relatively stave forest product prices are expected over the next five decades.

"Softwood timber prices are projected to increase over the next 50 years, but at a rate (0.6 percent per year) considerably below that of the past 50 years (1.9 percent per year.)

"Softwood pulpwood prices will remain at or below present depressed levels, then rise at the end of the projection.

"Prices for softwood and hardwood lumber will increase at about the same pace as for sawtimber.

"Hardwood pulpwood prices will remain relatively low, but will increase at the end of the projection period with increasing limitations on availability of harvestable hardwoods on nonindustrial private timberlands in the South.

"Canada will continue to be our leading importer. However, Canada's share of import volume will decline while non-Canadian sources will show a sharp increase."

What does the future hold? The resource is changing. There will be new and modified processes for the production of existing products. New products will be developed. Materials other than wood will replace wood in traditional uses or will be combined with wood to product composite materials. Plastics is one of those materials. We are seeing more research into the production of wood-plastic composites. These new/modified materials are especially useful when they take a portion of the waste stream (plastics and wood) and combine them into a new form. Bio-energy and bio-fuels like wood pellets for stores and boilers, methanol and ethanol generation, pyrolysis products such as oils and gasses, et cetera, are also other potential uses for wood in the future.

Bill Hubbard (Southern Regional Extension Forester, University of Georgia, also a presenter at the March 2004 Forum) did an excellent job of addressing the problem of marketing small diameter logs. Forest landowners in the South will be dealing with this problem just as our neighbors in the West. Our regional sawmills are moving toward smaller diameter logs. In many areas, it is difficult to find a mill that can handle logs larger than 24 to 28 inches in diameter.

We will see an increase in the production of composite products such as particleboard, oriented strand board (OSB), and medium density fiberboard (MDF). Engineered wood products such as laminated beams (GLULAM), laminated veneer lumber (LVL), and a multitude of other products whose physical and mechanical properties can be manipulated, will also see increased development.

One of the newest things on the horizon is nanotechnology. Though there are many definitions in use, the simplest is "the application of science to developing new materials and processes by manipulating molecular and atomic particles (Jupitermedia Corporation 2004). It is "the branch of engineering that deals with things smaller than 100 nanometers," especially with the manipulation of individual molecules) (Wordnet 2004) and "the science and art of making devices that are smaller in scale than MEMS (micromechanical systems), often at a molecular size, generally fabricated by chemical processes that result in the growth or formation of certain useful structures (Govindaraj 2001).

Other nano and micro technologies that are developing at research centers around the world, like the Institute for Micromanufacturing at Louisiana Tech University, will have a huge impact on our future. Laboratories with micro and nanofabrication processing capabilities (for example, x-ray and optical lithographies, bulk and surface micromachining, and layer-by-layer assembly will make advances we haven't even dreamed of as yet.

One example of nanotechnology that may be used in forest products industry is creating a monomolecular-layer coating on paper or other materials by layer-by-layer assembly. Most coatings are several micrometers (one-thousandth of a mm, or 10-to-minus-3 mm) thick; however, we now have the capability to produce coatings that are a uniform number of molecules in thickness, about one to two nanometers (one hundred-thousandth of a mm, or 10-to-minus-6 mm).

The trend in our woody resource is toward genetically improved planting stock, plantations, faster growth rates, shorter rotations, more intensive management (herbicides, fertilizers, pruning, etc.) and ultimately smaller logs. Dr. Michael Blazier (Forest Research Project Leader, Hill Farm Research Station, Homer, Louisiana) mentioned this in his presentation this morning.

Figure 1 (See chart) compares cubic meter volume growth per year for non-intensive versus intensive forest management. Intensively managed stands product larger volumes in shorter periods of time. Dominant trees produce larger volumes than suppressed trees. These relationships are generally accepted as normal.

Figure 1. Effect of non-intensive versus intensive forest management on yearly volume production.

To Be Continued

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