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Forest product mills produce a wide range of products through primary and secondary manufacturers.  Primary manufacturers buy roundwood from loggers and then make lumber, panels, paper, veneer, and similar products. Secondary manufacturers buy these products, add value, and then sell other things, such as flooring, furniture, books, and clothing.  Collectively, the forest products industry makes the thousands of products that we all use every day and provide the financial incentive to manage forests well.  This complements the log products episode.

Michigan's forest industry contributes about $20 million and nearly 100,000 jobs to the economy.  These values do not include major wood-users such as lumber yards and construction companies.  Wood products manufacturing is the third largest manufacturing sector, behind automobiles and agriculture.  The Michigan DNR Forest Products Directory lists over 1500 primary and secondary manufacturers.  The bulk of these companies are in secondary manufacturers in southern Michigan.

Counter-intuitive to many, wood-based industries help maintain forests as forests and contribute to the production of other values, such as clean water and wildlife habitat.  All "uses" of the forest can be enhanced through management.  Management cannot happen without tree removals.  Trees will not be removed (harvested) unless there exists a commercial incentive.  The forest industry provides this incentive.  The result is the largest conservation provider at our disposal.  So, the industry is not simply something we must "tolerate" because we require the products, but, rather is the primary driver towards a more environmentally-friendly future.  

Major Points

• Producers (loggers) sell raw wood products to a wide range of different primary mills, such as sawmills, pulpmills, and utilities. 
• The primary mills manufacture products, such as pulp, paper, boards, and veneer, that are used for another manufacturing step. 
• The manufacturing web that brings final products to our doorsteps can be complex. 
• Materials from wood find their way into many products that don’t at all resemble wood, such artificial vanilla, clothing, or medicines. 

Additional Information

• More about forest products at Michigan Forests Forever
• Two Sides website, an industry-based group dedicated to dispelling common myths about forest products.
• Michigan DNR Forest Products Directory website, a directory where queries can be made by county, type of business, and other factors.

BeLeaf It or Not!  Video Production The purpose for these videos is to INTRODUCE a few concepts for each episode topic.  They are meant to be light-hearted and entertaining.   Yet, the intention is to have both feet on solid science ground (biological, economic, social, et al.).  We acknowledge that many of the topics are introduced or reinforced in school curricula at the fourth through seventh grades.  So, these students, and their teachers, are the primary target audience.  All of these topics can be more fully explored within the classroom setting or, in some case, be explored IN THE WOODS!  With this in mind, these support pages are embedded into the Michigan Forests Forever website, which already houses a wide range of information about Michigan forests, designed for use by teachers. This entire project cost about $100,000.  No small amount, of course.  The primary authors were Bill Cook, Georgia Peterson, and James Ford.  Additionally, most of the episode scripts were either drafted and/or reviewed by cooperating foresters, biologists, teachers, and other experts.  If you're curious about who helped produced these videos, visit the "credits" page.

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