![]() These statistics vary from source to source depending upon the criteria used for defining forest industry and related job classifications. On the average, Michigan's trees have been getting older and larger for over 50 years. ![]() Most Michigan forest acres have less volume than that. Michigan forests support 100,000 jobs and annually adds 20 billion dollars to the state economy ($500+ billion GDP). Together, they make up 70% of the total timber volume. A well-stocked acre of northern hardwoods will have the equivalent of 30-40 cords. We have more timberland than Alaska! Most of Alaska is not forested. The most common tree species in Michigan are: sugar maple, red maple, red pine, northern white-cedar, northern red oak, quaking aspen, bigtooth aspen, black cherry, and hemlock. The tallest known tree in the world is a California redwood at 380 feet. Michigan's forest is among the top ten largest in area within the USA. Logging, fires, and pollution do not result in deforestation, at least not in Michigan. The largest tree in Michigan is a black willow. The two main causes of deforestation are agriculture and construction of towns and cities. This is an increase of over a million acres since 1980. Michigan was once about 95% forested prior to Euro-American settlement. There are 14 billion trees in Michigan. Michigan has about 20 million acres of forest, covering about 53% of the State. When compared to an annual timber harvest of 13 billion cubic feet (a cord pile about 123,000 miles long), net growth is about double the harvest volume. There is enough standing timber volume in the USA to build a cord pile that would circle the Earth over 400 times. For now. In 2012, our nation's timber lands had net annual growth of more than 26 billion cubic feet of timber (a cord pile over 250,000 miles long), which is more growth than 20 years before that (21 billion cubic feet). ![]() In fact, indicators show just the opposite. Forests cover about 67% as much of the USA as they did in 1600. More than 270 million acres of federal land (11.5 percent of the USA) are set aside for use as wildlife refuges, parks, and wilderness areas. Most of America's forest lies in the eastern states. The USA is not running out of trees or forest. About 490 million acres are classified as timber lands, or forests capable of growing commercial timber. About one-third of the United States, 737 million acres, is forested.
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