East Texas Harvest and Utilization Study, 2008

Forest planners and managers have a continuing need for information about the timber resource, and the general public is expressing increasing interest in the effects of logging. Therefore, up-to-date data on the Nation’s forests— and how they are changing—are essential to well-informed decisionmaking. Information about the condition of and changes in the timber resource of Texas comes from three primary sources: (1) inventory plots, which describe current conditions and quantify changes due to mortality, growth, removals, and land use; (2) mill surveys, which quantify timber volume harvested and delivered to primary wood products facilities, i.e., sawmills, pulpmills, veneer mills, composite panel mills, and pole mills; and (3) logging utilization studies, which characterize harvest operations and quantify the timber volume that is cut and utilized, as well as that portion left in the forest.