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ABOUT THE PROGRAM For more than 20 years, the Bureau's Forest Products Industry Research Program has monitored industry operations in Montana and Idaho, as well as in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. Over the past five years, the program has grown to include the Pacific Coast states of Alaska, California, Oregon, and Washington. Research focuses on the forest products industry's size, diversity, and economic impacts. By tracking timber from the forest through primary timber-processing facilities to the wholesale market, we provide quantitative evaluations of timber sources and use as raw material, mill production and sales, utilization of mill residues, as well as associated employment and payrolls, and the industry's role in regional, state, and local economies. Recent research includes analysis of timber-processing capacity throughout the West and the industry's ability to use trees of various sizes, with particular attention to the use of small-diameter trees that may be harvested as part of restoration and fire hazard reduction treatments. Other recent studies have examined changes in Montana's secondary forest products industry and the economics of various fire hazard reduction prescriptions in Montana and New Mexico. The program continues to maintain an electronic information system in cooperation with Montana Business Connections, as well as provide quarterly and annual assessments of Montana's forest products industry and annual assessments of Idaho's forest products industry. Major cooperators of the Bureau's Forest Products Industry Research Program include the Interior West Forest Inventory and Analysis Program and the Pacific Northwest Forest Inventory and Analysis Program of the U.S. Forest Service, as well as the Inland Northwest Forest Products Research Consortium. |
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