MISSOULA — Forest products are an important part of day to day life so to recognize the impact these products have it’s been National Forest Products Week.
“Forest Products Week is a great chance to sit down and talk with a lot of people about how important and how big of a difference that impact makes on their life,” said Sam Scott, forest economist at the University of Montana.
“You go to the grocery store and buy any paper products and there's, you know, forest products are a big part of that. If you have kids that go to a daycare, there's probably wood chips out in the playground," Marc Vessar, forest practices program manager for the DNRC said. "That is a forest product that would otherwise have been burned. You can also think of the lumber. We have plywood, we have studs, our houses are built from, I don't think there's anything that we can actually use in a day that doesn't have forest products,"
Forest products come in all kinds of different forms but all are vital to daily lives. Whether that’s toilet paper, lumber for a house or wood pellets for heating.
Beyond the actual products that are produced, the forest products industry plays a crucial role in maintaining our forests, especially in Western Montana.
“We need the forest products industry to manage our natural resources,” stated Vessar. “Our forest products manufacturers are a vital part of this in order to make sure that we’re not just burning that stuff up in slash piles.”
The other important thing about forest products is that they are a renewable resource, helping provide commodities that play a crucial role in the sustainability transition.
“The forests are renewable. You know, when we harvest a tree, we also, we also replant it or there's natural volunteers. And this forest cycle, this forest life cycle we have around us can really construct and power a lot of things we have without having to, you know, go across the world to extract some non-renewable fossil fuel resources, whether it's in our building materials or our fuel” explained Scott. “Whether that's for vehicles and manufacturing or for heating our homes, being able to do that sustainably and locally makes a big difference, not just, you know, kind of on the grand scheme of, of as far as, you know, the environment and the climate and everything like that, but also just socially here in Montana, being able to use what's around us to, to get the things done we need done.”
So the next time you use a forest product, you can feel good knowing that you’re not only being sustainable but also playing a role in managing our forests.
