Economic Contributions
of the Northern Forest
Maine
New Hampshire
Vermont
New York
ME
Bangor
NY
Concord
NH
Syracuse
Buffalo
Maine • New Hampshire • Vermont • New York
Portland
VT
Lake Ontario
Empire State Forest
Products Association
123 State Street
Albany, NY 12207
518-463-1297
www.esfpa.org
Economic
Contributions of
the Northern Forest
Augusta
Burlington
Rutland
T
he forest owners and wood manufacturers in the Northern Forest are ser ved by
a number of associations and agencies:
Albany
he Northern Forest blankets 26 million acres in
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York
and is the largest forest in the eastern US. The
forest is valuable in many ways to the people who
live and recreate within its boundaries, work with its
resources, use its products, or care about it. The
renewable timber resource that this forest provides is the
foundation for a sustainable economy in both rural and
urban communities.
T
The forest products
industry in the Northern
Forest is well-positioned
to prosper in the twentyfirst century. Today’s
global economy presents
wood manufacturers with
many product innovation
and pricing challenges,
as well as access to new
markets in which high quality wood products are valued
for their durability and natural appearance.
Maine Wood Products
Association
PO Box 370
Newport, ME 04953
207-368-5969 or 767-0188
www.mainewood.org
North East State Foresters
Association
PO Box 2911
Concord, NH 03302-2911
603-229-1965
http://nefa.conknet.com
Vermont Wood
Manufacturers Association
PO Box 196
Poultney, VT 05764-1195
802-287-4284
www.vermontwood.com
USDA Forest Service–
Cooperative Forestry
PO Box 96090
Washington, DC 20090
www.fs.fed.us/cooperativeforestry
Photos courtesy VWMA and
M W PA m e m b e r c o m p a n i e s .
Empire State Forest Products Association
Maine Wood Products Association
North East Sate Foresters Association
Vermont Wood Manufacturers Association
USDA Forest Service–Cooperative Forestry
Jobs from the Northern Forest…
FORESTRY/LOGGING—
Sustainable industries depend on sustainable supplies of raw materials. Foresters
and loggers are trained through industrysponsored and professional association
programs to manage for the needs of future
generations as well as today.
S AW M I L L / P L Y W O O D —
A working forest sustains
a vibrant rural economy
Wood manufacturing in the Northern Forest is a traditional
industry dating back hundreds of years. Today in Maine,
New Hampshire, Vermont and New York, nearly 100,000
people are employed in a variety of forest-based
manufacturing jobs that generate annual payrolls of nearly
$3 billion. Over 80 percent of the wood products businesses in the Northern Forest are family-owned firms with
fewer than 50 employees.
Products from the Northern Forest are admired and sold
around the world. Popsicle sticks and golf tees most likely
started as a birch tree in Maine; and cutting boards and
salad bowls probably began as a Vermont maple tree.
Timber cut in the Northern Forest is manufactured into
everything from baseball bats and toys, to furniture and
musical instruments. Wood from the Northern Forest is
used to make the nation’s homes—framing, clapboards,
flooring, architectural millwork, kitchen cabinets, and log
cabins. The value of these products combined for Maine,
New Hampshire, Vermont and New York was over $16.4
billion in 1997.
Innovative developments in milling wood
and using residues, have allowed greater
yields and nearly eliminated waste as raw
logs are converted into boards, laminated
sheets, and other composite materials.
LUMBER/BUILDING
M A T E R I A L — The American
tradition of wood-framed houses, and the
east coast housing boom, mean lumber,
architectural millwork, and other wood
building materials will always be in demand.
F U R N I T U R E — A wide variety of
furniture and furniture parts, including turnings, drawer boxes, and panels, are made in
the Northern Forest. Styles range from
rustic outdoor furniture, to institutional furniture, to traditional New England designs
and one-of-a-kind custom built pieces.
HOME ACCESSORIES—
Using the local fine grained hardwoods, creative wood manufacturers and small family
businesses have developed markets for a
wide variety of unique, durable products
such as lamp bases, flagpoles, bowls, woodhandled tools, and kitchen utensils.
TOYS/NOVELTIES—
Yankee ingenuity can be credited for the
almost unlimited number of product ideas
and manufacturing processes that have
been invented to utilize small dimension
wood that would be considered scrap in
other parts of the country.
One of the
strengths of
our wood
manufacturing
is its ability to
succeed in a
rural setting
• Most manufacturing facilities are within 100 miles of
the forest where the logs are harvested, so transportation costs for raw materials are low.
• The Northern Forest is a world leader in sustainable
forest management and chain-of-custody forest
products certification. Forestry operations on
millions of acres of public, private, and corporate
lands are certified by the Sustainable Forestry
InitiativeTM, the Forest Stewardship Council, or the
American Tree Farm Program.
• Rural firms benefit equally from technological
advances such as ultra-efficient saws and computernumeric controlled (CNC) routers and shapers.
Advanced telecommunications in rural areas allow
customers, distributors, designers, and vendors to
share information in real time.
• State-level trade associations in Maine, New York, and
Vermont provide opportunities for networks for
members of the industry to share knowledge; and as a
result, strong, informal learning communities exist.
• The Northern Forest is a traditional tourist destination,
with wood artisans and the wood industry as part of
the appeal. Thousands of visitors come each year to
attend woodworking classes, to see machinery in
action at firms that offer tours, or to make purchases at
the many showrooms and studios that are open to the
public. In 1997, revenues from forest-related
recreation and tourism in Maine, New Hampshire,
Vermont and New York totaled $9.27 billion.