Timbering_In_WV

Timbering In WV Timbering: No one Takes the Blame West Virginia is the third most forested state in the nation. The total forested area of West Virginia is 11.9 million acres. West Virginia's forest products industry supports a mere 20,000 employees compared with the devastations that it is causing. The forest products industry contributes $2.1 billion annually to West Virginia's economy or so it claims and still we must ask the question of the cost of reparations of what they have taken away. The forest products industry owns 7% of West Virginia's forest land. The timber industry claims that the annual tree growth exceeds tree removals due to harvesting, insect and fire damage, and conversion of forest land to other uses. What tree growth are they speaking of' They are making the replacements of some trees however they are not of the same quality of what they took, nor did these replacements grow back overnight. There was a four percent increase in both forest land and timberland between 1975 and 1990. In the 1990's they are harvesting 34% of the average net growth per acre. Yet, the 1994, volume of wood harvested was 38% greater than in 1987. The volume of sawlogs timbering, west, logging, virginia's, virginia, forest, state, tree, timber, water, states, million, industry, harvesting, forestry, years, volume, products, law, last, land, increase, growth, forested, companies, article, year, virginians, trees, tax, stringent, streams, since, sediment, save