Forest Products in the Eastern US
By: Samuel Rorabaugh (email)
This discussion will look at forest products that come from the eastern United States , how they are used in our everyday lives and where they come from. Trees, like all living things are composed of cells. Throughout this discussion we will examine how the cellular structure determines how we use trees in different forest products.
We will start with a short history of the use of forest products in the eastern United States . When settlers first arrived in America they found huge forests of large straight eastern white pine trees ( Pinus strobus ), they shipped these trees back to Europe to be used as ship masts, when America began building it's own navy we began to use these trees for our ships.
Eastern White Pine
We also used oak trees unique to our continent to build ships with hulls so strong they withstood cannonballs! One of these ships called the USS Constitution and nicknamed “Old Ironsides” withstood the entire Revolutionary War and still floats in Boston Massachusetts . As our new nation became more and more settled the early settlers used wood for many, many things. They cleared vast forests for pastureland for their animals, many times they would simply kill the trees without using them and we now see this as a very wasteful practice. A final major use of timber by early settlers was as a fuel source, since gas, coal, and oil weren't around. As a result of the overuse of forests many of the native pine and hardwood stands that originally grew in the eastern US were used up. The practice of Forestry began in the early 1800's to combat further destruction of our forests.
Cleared Forest
One major tree species that became dominant after these virgin forests were cleared was the American chestnut ( Castanea dentate) . This tree was used for many things, including house and barns; its bark was also used to tan leather. Often times only the bark was taken and the tree was left behind, this is now seen as an extremely wasteful practice. The reason that this tree name might not sound familiar to you is because in 1904 a fungus was brought to this country from Asia that was deadly to the American chestnut. Within fifty years all chestnut trees had died and now the tree is only present as a small shrub because it is always killed in its first few years of growth. This link is about the restoration of the American chestnut. This link is one about the decline of the chestnut.
Dead Chestnut with Sprouts typical of the Southern Appalachians
When thinking about different products we must consider the way they are manufactured. The most simple manufacturing process' occurs at a sawmill where we cut logs into square boards and posts of all shapes and sizes. A more complicated process occurs at mills where logs are converted to chips that are further manufactured into plywood, particle board, Oriented Strand Board, and paper.
Oriented Strand Board
Plywood
Pines are a typed of softwood grown in plantations throughout the southeastern U.S. They are cut into standard dimensions, like two inches by four inches or two inches by six inches. These boards are commonly used as house frames, the part of houses that support the walls and the ceiling.
Common House Frame
Pines and other, softwoods are the main ingredient in paper, and Oriented Strand Board, and Plywood. OSB is made of many chips arranged so that their cell tubes point opposite directions then glued together. Plywood is made of thin sheets of pine that has been peeled off the tree by a lathe, and then they are glued together with their cell tubes pointing opposite directions. Another use for these pine trees is telephone poles, these are just trees that have had their bark removed, and it is amazing how straight they grow!
Pine Plantation (Look at the Straight Rows!)
Broadleaf trees are very common throughout the Appalachian Mountains in western Virginia . Some common kinds of trees that are considered hardwoods are oaks (Quercus spp.), hickories (Carya spp.), and maples (Acer spp.). The cells in hardwoods are very dense, meaning the tubes of cells are packed tightly together. This property leads us to use hardwoods for floors, paneling on a wall, furniture, and cabinets.
Hardwood Table and Chairs
People like to use hardwoods for these applications not only because of their beauty, but also because they are very durable. Pallets are wooden platforms that crates of goods are placed upon when they are shipped around the country; the pallet industry is very large and important to our economy.
A Shipping Pallet
Since hardwoods are so strong, they can also be used for pallets, truck trailer floors, fence posts and tool handles.
The manufacturing of paper is possibly the most commonly produced from the forest. Paper uses wood's cellular structure is unique in that it is completely random. The cells are jumbled and mashed to create a very smooth, even product. Paper products are everywhere in our everyday lives, I'm sure that if you think for just a moment you can name at least one. Paper production is a very complicated process that involves many steps but basically, they take trees that are too small to be taken to sawmills and made into other products called “pulpwood” and grind them up into small chips. They then take these chips, along with chips that were waste from sawmill, and boil them in water to break them down. This product is called “pulp.” The pulp is then mashed, chemicals are added to make the product white, if needed, and then the paper is pressed and rolled out into the final sheets we're used to seeing. Paper making is concentrated in the southeast because we've become so efficient in growing trees, taking them out of the forest and then making them into paper. Paper is made all over the country, however, wherever there are forests.
A few everyday products from paper include cardboard boxes, everyday paper like tablet paper and printer paper, and toilet paper. One interesting use of paper is in container board. Container board is the official name for the thick paper that you find in things like cereal boxes, every time you walk through a grocery store you pass many, many products that are in container board.
Picture courtesy of Temperate Forest Foundation
Pictorial of the Paper Making Process
Cardboard Boxes
Container Board
As you can see there are many products that are important to our society that come from our forests .These products can be found all over our society and in every aspect of our life. Many of the historical uses of forests have now changed to a highly specialized uses that use more of the forest to create more products. Some species have come and gone in our forests since we settled here, but each new species has been used in the best manner to create products for this country and the world
A forester's and the forest industry's challenge is to continue to provide these goods while maintaining a healthy environment and a constant supply of timber. This challenge is met everyday in the forest industry by the increasing efficiency by which trees are taken from the forest in an environmentally sound manner and turned into paper product for consumers like you and I.
Soft Wood Pile
