Exports can provide income, employment, and risk diversification. However, the decision to enter the export market requires commitment of sufficient managerial, economic and financial resources. A survey of 214 hardwood lumber mills across 10 states in the Appalachian region was conducted to assess motivation and differences between hardwood lumber exporters and non-exporters. The study examined marketing strategies, business practices, manufacturing equipment used, and exporting process. Business size was the most important criterion to determine the likelihood of export. Hardwood lumber exporters invested more money in equipment, manufactured larger amounts of higher quality lumber, and utilized more species that capture greater value in the marketplace. The findings of this study will help the Appalachian forest industry and government agencies to identify strategies that lead to export opportunities for hardwood lumber. Key words: lumber, lumber industry, lumber export, hardwood lumber, Appalachian region
Disturbances of varying frequency and intensity shape the species composition, stand structure, and functions of forests. This study assessed the frequency and distribution of disturbances caused by eight agents (insects, diseases, fire, animals, weather, other vegetation, human, and unknown) in the forests of the southeastern United States from 1995 to 2018. We used data from 88,722 inventory measurements of 33,531 plots from the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis database to assess disturbance among different forest types and to different canopy strata. Disturbances were detected in approximately 14 percent of the plots, located mostly in pine-dominated forest types. Fire was the most frequent disturbance agent (occurring 6 percent of the time), followed by weather and animal agents. The agents that caused the highest mortality rate during the period for saplings were silvicultural treatments (8.6 percent), other vegetation (5.6 percent), and fire (4.4 percent), whereas for trees they were silvicultural treatments (9.8 percent), weather (1.9 percent) and insects (1.7 percent). The forest type that appeared to have been most affected by disturbances was longleaf–slash pine of the Coastal Plain. These results are useful for understanding the spatiotemporal distribution of disturbance events in different southeastern forest types and locations and for guiding forest management activities to mitigate potential impacts.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.