The impact of forestry and forest product industries in our economy in 2017 was $12.919 billion, according to the latest LSU AgCenter figures.

Forests cover 14 million acres, about 50% of Louisiana's land area, making it the state's greatest single land use. Fifty-nine of the state's 64 parishes contain land capable of producing sufficient timber to support forest-industry activities as well as provide habitat for wildlife, recreational opportunity, scenic beauty, and all the other environmental benefits timberlands provide.

Workers employed in forest products manufacturing earned $817.2 million in 2014 compared to $750.4 million in 2013. State and local government benefit directly from timber revenues. Severance taxes from timber sales totaled $13.62 million in 2016, compared to $14.14 million in 2015 and $12.13 million in 2014. Parishes where the timber was grown received 75% of the monies; the state’s general fund received 25% with a portion of the funds made available for landowner cost share for replanting harvested trees.

Severance taxes from timber sales totaled $13.62 million in 2016, compared to $14.14 million in 2015 and $12.13 million in 2014. Parishes where the timber was grown received 75% of the monies; the state’s general fund received 25% with a portion of the funds made available for landowner cost share for replanting harvested trees.

In the 2013-2014 planting season, Louisiana landowners (industrial and non-industrial) reforested the land with over 73 million seedlings, and at least 16 trees for each Louisiana citizen. Other trees are also naturally regenerated.

Louisiana forest landowners received $493.2 million from timber in 2016, compared to $463.7 million in 2015.

In 2015, 1.05 billion board feet of sawtimber and 7 million cords of timber were harvested. This was a 12% increase in sawtimber and only a slight increase in cordwood products from 201

Forestry-related employment accounted for 51,874 jobs in the state. Forest industries manufacturing employers in Louisiana provides about 19,969 jobs in 2017. Only a few years ago, the industry employed about 25,000 people. In addition, about 8,000 people are employed in the harvesting and transportation of timber.

Louisiana timber contractors and their employees earned about $539.7 million in 2015 which was 5.9% more than the previous year. It is estimated that each loaded log truck pays the equivalent of $835 in local, state and federal taxes.

There are 148,000 owners of Louisiana forestland. Private non-industrial landowners own 81% of the state's forestland, forest-products industries own 10%, and the public owns 9%. Trees are Louisiana's No. 1 crop. In 2005 forestry accounted for 69% of the total value of all plant commodities grown in Louisiana, including cotton, feed grain crops, fruit, soybeans, sugarcane, and others. When you look at total value of Louisiana plant and animal commodities (beef, milk, poultry plus farm wildlife and fisheries), forestry still contributes 47% of the value of Louisiana's agricultural commodities. Timber is manufactured by local mills throughout Louisiana into building materials, a variety of paper products and numerous other products used in daily life.

Louisiana's forests support some 180 primary wood-using industries (such as sawmills and paper mills) located throughout the state and 750 secondary wood-using industries (including furniture manufacturers, cabinet makers, millwork plants and others that use the products produed by primary wood-using industries).

There was much cause for concern during the Sixties and Seventies as much hardwood land was converted to agricultural use -- specifically soybean production in Louisiana. But that trend is now being reversed. Several programs offer incentives for landowners to reforest those lands most suited to hardwood production and wildlife habitat. The 1991 survey of Louisiana forestland showed that we were growing more hardwood stock than we were harvesting each year and the land area of hardwood is about equal to the land area devoted to pine.

The miracle of trees is that they use resources (sun, soil, water, air) without really using them up. Trees also convert carbon dioxide to oxygen and store carbon in the wood, keeping it trapped even after processing into lumber or furniture. Young trees are also more efficient at this process of carbon conversion. In fact, a tree returns twice as much nutrients to the soil (most of it through leaf and twig drops) as it takes in. Trees are a RENEWABLE resource and we can grow trees over and over on the same site.

Millions of tons of paper from used corrugated boxes to old newspapers and office paper are recycled each year. In fact, more paper is recovered in the U.S. for recycling than goes into the landfills, thus saving landfill space. Each day Americans recycle enough used paper to fill 15 miles of boxcars. The forest products industry has invested millions of dollars in new equipment that can use recovered paper as a raw material. That means the paper you read today can be transformed into new products tomorrow.

Builders choose wood in 94 percent of new homes. That's because wood is naturally renewable, requires less processing energy than other materials like steel and is biodegradable. Wood is naturally low in conductivity and it insulates well. Enough wood is harvested each year in Louisiana to build 150,000 homes.

Forest landowners participate in a voluntary effort to protect the black bear, which lives primarily in bottomland hardwood and flood plain forests. The red-cockaded woodpecker is also a listed endangered species that lives in Louisiana forests. Many landowners have adopted a multi-use plan for their woodlands so that commercial production of wood fiber and wildlife habitat can co-exist. Wildlife is flourishing. Consider that deer population has tripled in number in just 25 years. Wild turkeys have also increased about 20,000 in the last decade to a total population of about 90,000 birds in the state.