A Ten Year Analysis Of South Carolinas Industrial Timber Products Output

The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Research Work Unit of the USDA Forest Service developed the Timber Product Output (TPO) Database Retrieval System to help customers answer questions about timber harvesting and use in the Southern Region. This system acts as an interface to a standard set of consistently coded TPO data for each State and county in the region and Nation. This regional and national set of TPO data consists of 11 variables that describe for each county the roundwood products harvested, logging residues left in the woods, other timber removals (i.e. land clearing and reserved timber removals), and wood and bark residues generated by the county's primary wood-using mills. The system is available through the FIA Web site: http: //srsfia2.fs.fed.us/

The roundwood output of industrial timber products from South Carolina’s forests amounted to 605.1 million cubic feet in 1988, nearly 3 percent more than in 1987. Volume of industrial timber products generated from plant byproducts increased by nearly 1 percent to 205.9 million cubic feet in 1988. In 1988, residues used for fiber and fuel totaled 176.5 million cubic feet, Pulpwood was the Sate’s leading roundwood product with 283.2 million cubic feet; next was saw logs with 253.7 cubic feet, and then veneer logs with 62.7 million cubic feet. The trend continues toward complete utilization of plant byproducts, with the volume of unused plant residues dropping by 4 percent, to 0.8 million cubic feet. Fewer mills had greater receipts, indicating increased utilization and processing efficiency.

This report contains the findings of a 2005 canvass of all primary wood-using plants in South Carolina, and presents changes in product output and residue use since 2003. It complements the Forest Inventory and Analysis periodic inventory of volume and removals from the State's timberland. The canvass was conducted to determine the amount and source of wood recipes and annual timber product drain, by county, in 2005 and to determine interstate and cross-regional mills were canvassed.