WVFA Mountain State Forestry Summer 2020

I N D U S T R Y N E W S 10 West Virginia Forestry Association Mountain State Forestry  | Summer 2020 www.wvfa.org Economic Contribution of WV’s Forest Products Industry 2018 UPDATE WEST VIRGINIA HAS ABUNDANT FOREST RESOURCES that contribute significantly to the state’s economy. It is the third most heavily forested state in the nation covering over 12 million acres and has been relatively stable since the late 1980s (USDA Forest Service, 2016). Most of this forest area is available for timber production and in 2017, over 181 million ft³ of timber was harvested from the state. This plentiful natural resource is an important economic driver for the state. Even with the downturn of the economy in 2007–2008, WV remains one of the top-wood producing states in the nation producing more than 700 million board feet of hardwood lumber, 770 million square feet of OSB and 800 million square feet of veneer annually (WV Department of Commerce, 2017). The economic importance of the forest products industry in WV has been widely recognized. A recent study by Gabbert, et al. (2020) examined the economic contribution of the Forest Products Industry (FPI) historically and showed that the industry suffered a significant decline in its economic contribution to the state during the period 2006–2010, which could be attributed to the collapse of the housing market. However, the WV FPI experienced considerable improvement over the period 2010–2015, showing increasing economic contributions to the state’s economy. This performance was again consistent with that of the housing market, where recovery started picking up after the housing collapse in 2007–2008. The industry experienced continued improvement through 2017, directly contributing 1.1% of all employment, 1% of gross state product, a total of 10,198 jobs in direct jobs, and $2.2 billion in direct output. This article presents an update to an earlier report detailing the economic contribution of the WV FPI to the state’s economy. The initial paper looked at economic data from 2017, while this follow-up report examines changes that occurred between 2017 and 2018 using data provided through a program called IMPLAN (Impact Analysis for Planning). By Kathryn Gazal, Associate Professor, Division of Forestry and Natural Resources, West Virginia University and Joseph McNeel, Professor, Appalachian Hardwood Center, West Virginia University FPI Model Sectors IMPLAN Sectors Forestry Forestry, forest products, and timber tract; Support activities for forestry Logging Commercial logging Primary solid wood products Sawmills; Wood preservation; Veneer and plywood mfg.; Reconstituted wood product mfg. Secondary solid wood products Engineered wood member and truss mfg.; Wood windows and doors mfg.; Cut stock, resawing lumber, and planning; Other millwork including flooring; Wood container and pallet mfg.; Manufactured home (mobile home) mfg.; Refabricated wood building materials; All other miscellaneous wood product mfg. Wood furniture Wood kitchen cabinet and countertop mfg.; Upholstered household furniture mfg.; Non- upholstered wood household furniture mfg.; Institutional wood mfg.; Wood office furniture mfg.; Custom architectural woodwork and millwork mfg.; Showcase, partition, shelving, and locker mfg. Pulp, paper, and paperboard mills Pulp mills; Paper mills; Paperboard mills Secondary paperboard and other paper products Paperboard container mfg.; Paper bag and coated and treated paper mfg.; Stationary product mfg.; Sanitary paper product mfg.; All other converted paper product mfg. Table 1. FPI major sectors included in IMPLAN analysis.