As the global population continues to grow and the demand for wood increases, so does the burden on the world’s forests. Therefore, the world’s forests are declining, with data from the European Union showing that currently, net forest loss sits at 4.8 million hectares per year.
A large number of people in the world continue to live in forests. And these are also some of the most impoverished populations. The EU believes that the 250 million people that live in forests often live on less than $1.25 per day. The forestry industry, on the other hand, is quite lucrative. This is natural since timber and wood products play an important role in different industries. Speaking in numeric terms, the global forestry and logging market was worth $176 billion in 2021 and is slated to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.1% until 2028 for a final value of $2.4 billion according to estimates from Business Research Insights. As expected, the research firm believes that this growth is being stimulated due to the growth in the use of timber in the construction industry. However, at the same time, it also adds that the industry has slowed down its growth because of stringent regulatory requirements that have limited tree felling to prevent natural disasters resulting from deforestation such as floods.
These requirements and the world’s hunger for wood have also led to the creation of new industries to balance the needs of the environment and population growth. One such industry is precision forestry. Forestry, according to the consulting and research firm McKinsey, is ripe for digitization. This is due to the fact that as opposed to its close cousin agriculture, the sector still relies on centuries-old processes and sees little corporate involvement. The application of technology to improve forest management is called precision forestry. These technologies provide forest managers and other firms with significant advantages such as lowering the delivered costs for wood, increasing wood yields, collecting data on a massive scale to generate insights, automating operations, and facilitating tree growth by improving plantation procedures. They have enabled significant automation in forestry, allowing companies to autonomously cut trees and gauge their quality, determine the wood inventory of forests, and prevent diseases from breaking out. Cumulatively speaking, precision forestry is impacting the full value chain of forestry, from nurseries to harvesting, and wood delivery.
Sounds interesting right? So, the next step is to see the market value of precision forestry, and more importantly, its growth rate. On this front, a research report from Research and Markets outlines that this market was worth $6.2 billion last year and that it will outpace the broader forestry and logging industry’s growth rate by exhibiting a CAGR of 6.5% between 2022 and 2030 to be worth an estimated $10.4 billion by the end of the forecast period. The industry is divided into hardware and software segments, with each having its own growth rates. Among these, and naturally, due to the lower upfront costs and capital expenditures, the software segment will outpace the broader market and grow through a CAGR of 7% while the hardware segment will lag and have a growth rate of 5.8%.
Within this industry, the timber and lumber segment is one of the most important segments particularly due to its proximity to the home building industry. In order to take a look at how this subsegment is doing, we consulted UFP Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:UFPI)’s Q4 earnings call. UFP provides lumber to construction firms. During the earnings call the company’s management shared:
Now I feel a bit like someone, who finishes a delicious meal and says, this is the best meal I have ever eaten. And he immediately thinks, is that as good as it will ever get? Well, we certainly don’t think so. While we enjoy and celebrate positive achievements, we are constantly looking to improve. We are creating new recipes to make sure that the future can be savored even more. But I’m pretty sure you didn’t join this call to celebrate 2022 or to do meal planning for the future. You are far more interested in what’s going to happen in 2023 and beyond. We have reviewed countless forecasts, predictions, opinions, and pure depths, which seem to change frequently. It is difficult to find a consensus, but here is where our leadership team stands today.
New home construction is likely to fall 15% to 20% from 2022 levels. Interest rates will move probably up during the first half of the year, and maybe down in late Q4 or early 2024. Government will continue to borrow and become an even larger portion of total domestic spending. As an aside, we should probably send our grandkids a thank you note for this funding. Other data points are less clear, while we believe we are likely already in a mild recession, the question is how it will end. Will the economy have a hard landing? A smooth soft landing? Or a soft landing with the wheels up, which will definitely leave some marks? Will consumer spending continue or have the effects of inflation curved individual spending power? Since we cannot control these external factors, the UFP team is poised to do what it always does, execute our plan and continue to position our company for even better success than the future.
With these details in mind, let’s take a look at the U.S. states with the highest amount of forest cover.
Our Methodology
To compile our list of the most forested American states, we used data from the United States Department of Agriculture’s 2021 Forest Inventory and Analysis Business Report that covers forest land area as of March 2023. The top 20 U.S. states with the most forests are listed below.
Top 20 Most Forested States in the U.S.
20. Pennsylvania
Latest Forest Area in Thousand Acres: 16,898
Pennsylvania is one of the largest states in America, with over 13 million people living in its boundaries. It is also one of the most prosperous states in America, with a high gross state product (GSP).
19. Wisconsin
Latest Forest Area in Thousand Acres: 17,074
Wisconsin is a mid-sized state in terms of area. It is also one of America’s most important states in the agriculture sector, benefiting from its Midwestern location.
18. Florida
Latest Forest Area in Thousand Acres: 17,253
Florida is a Southeastern state located just at the tip of America. Its location also makes it suitable for regularly launching rockets from the U.S.
17. Minnesota
Latest Forest Area in Thousand Acres: 17.413
Minnesota is another Midwestern U.S. state. It is also one of the largest states in America in terms of area. Like other Midwestern states, it is also a major agricultural player.
16. Maine
Latest Forest Area in Thousand Acres: 17,579
Maine ranks quite high when the percentage of total forests in the area is considered. As a whole, there are 17.5 million acres of forests in the state.
15. North Carolina
Latest Forest Area in Thousand Acres: 18,829
North Carolina is a Southeastern state that was one of the first to be admitted to the Union in 1789. It houses roughly 11 million people and has a midsized economy.
14. New York
Latest Forest Area in Thousand Acres: 18,887
New York is a Northeastern American state which is one of the most populous regions in America despite being relatively smaller in size. Most of its population is in New York City – America’s largest city in terms of population.
13. Arkansas
Latest Forest Area in Thousand Acres: 19,040
Arkansas is a Southern state with 3.4 million residents. It ranks quite low in median household income and has 19 million acres of forests.
12. Mississippi
Latest Forest Area in Thousand Acres: 19,380
Mississippi is one of the least prosperous regions in America. It has one of the lowest household incomes in the U.S. and is known for its fiscal conservatism.
11. Colorado
Latest Forest Area in Thousand Acres: 20,063
Colorado is one of the most prosperous states in America, with a median household income of $75,200. It houses 5.8 million people and ranks in the top ten U.S. states in terms of area.
10. Michigan
Latest Forest Area in Thousand Acres: 20,311
Michigan is a Midwestern state with ten million residents. It was admitted relatively late to the Union, close to the mid nineteenth century.
9. Idaho
Latest Forest Area in Thousand Acres: 21,386
Idaho is a Northwestern American state. It is one of the least populated regions in America, housing 1.6 million people.
8. Washington
Latest Forest Area in Thousand Acres: 22,174
Washington is one of the most prosperous states in America with a median household income of $70,979. It is also one of the most populous regions, with 7.7 million residents.
7. Alabama
Latest Forest Area in Thousand Acres: 23,127
Alabama is a Southeastern state with 23 million acres of forests.
6. Georgia
Latest Forest Area in Thousand Acres: 24,635
Georgia is another Southeastern state. It has 10.7 million residents but low levels of median household income.
5. Montana
Latest Forest Area in Thousand Acres: 25,517
Montana is a mountainous state which is the fourth largest in the U.S. It covers an area of 147 thousand square miles, out of which 25 million acres are covered by forests. Despite its area, the state also ranks quite low in median household income, which stood at $56,539 in 2022. However, although it might have a low median household income, Montana is happy being one of the largest beer brewing states in America. Additionally, its vast forest resources have also spurred the development of a vibrant lumber industry in the area.
4. Oregon
Latest Forest Area in Thousand Acres: 29,653
Oregon is another Northwester state. Covering an area of 98 thousand square miles, the state also has 29.6 million acres of forests, making it rank higher than Montana in terms of the percentage of area covered by forests. Oregon has a population of 4.2 million people, and it has a median income of $71,583. The state also has a vibrant agriculture industry, as it produces vast amounts of wheat, soybeans, and corn. It also produces vast amounts of hazelnuts and benefits from its geography when it comes to its agriculture industry.
3. California
Latest Forest Area in Thousand Acres: 31,515
California is one of the largest states in America covering more than four hundred thousand square kilometers. It has 31 million acres of forests, and nearly one third of its area is covered by forests. California is also an economic hub in America, with several important cities that are the hub of the technology industry in the country. The state’s gross state product stood at $3.6 trillion in 2022 which was the largest in America. This also makes California one of the largest economies in the world, and not only in America.
2. Texas
Latest Forest Area in Thousand Acres: 40,970
Texas is another large American state. In terms of area, it is the second largest in America covering close to seven hundred thousand square miles. Texas is also the second largest state in America in terms of population having 29 million residents – close to ten percent of the American population. However, despite this, Texas ranks low in median household income which stood at $66,963 as of 2021. In terms of acres, Texas covered 167 million acres out of which 40 million were forests.
1. Alaska
Latest Forest Area in Thousand Acres: 128,577
Alaska is the largest state in America in terms of area. The Agriculture Department lists Alaska’s forests as divided by interior and exterior Alaska. Out of these, Interior Alaska has most of the forests, covering an area of 114 million acres.
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This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
