Ohio’s Forest Products Industry: Change Over Time and the Value of Timber as a Resource
A Graduate Defense Seminar will be presented by Carlos Coronado, MS in Forest Science, on Monday, March 9th at 10:00 a.m. in 382 Kottman Hall. Carlos will present Ohio’s Forest Products Industry: Change Over Time and the Value of Timber as a Resource.
Forest products play an essential role in our society. Timber and other fibers from the forest are used to manufacture homes, furniture, paper, and more than 5,000 other products. One third of Ohio’s total land area is forested, and timber products annually rank among the ten most valued commodities in the state. The effects of growing, harvesting, and processing this raw material into wood and fiber products ripple throughout the economy. However, given the 2007 to 2009 recessions impacts on the U.S. forest economy, the current structure and performance of these industries is not fully understood. Economic models were created to help better understand Ohio’s forest products economy. We used an economic modeling system, called IMPLAN, to create two sets of economic models. One set of models was created to assess the current conditions of Ohio’s forest products industry. The other model was created to assess the value of timber as a resource. The objectives of this study were to conduct a comprehensive economic impact analysis of Ohio’s Forest Products Industry in 2011, compare 2011 economic values with 2001 economic data using inflation adjusted dollars, and to determine the total economic impacts of timber product outputs in 2012 as well as timber’s value on a per unit of output basis.