Wood industry
[citation needed] Lumber and wood products, including timber for framing, plywood, and woodworking, are created in the wood industry from the trunks and branches of trees through several processes, commencing with the selection of appropriate logging sites and concluding with the milling and treatment processes of the harvested material.
Factors such as location, climate conditions, species, growth rate, and silviculture can affect the size of a mature tree.
Mills produce large volumes of material and aim to ensure delivery of a high quality standard of product.
There are many different purposes for wood including plywood, veneer, pulp, paper, particleboard, pallets, craft items, toys, instrument-making, furniture production, packing cases, wine barrels, cardboard, firewood, garden mulch, fibre adhesives, packaging and pet litter.
Western Australia has a unique substance called ‘biochar’, which is made from jarrah and pine and sometimes from crop and forestry residues, along with the former materials.
[7] The United States industrial production index hit a 13-year high during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
[8][9] Originally, trees were felled from native forests using axes and hand-held cross-cut saws – a slow process involving significant manual labor.
Since sawmills were traditionally located within forests, milled timber had to be transported over long distances via rough terrain or waterways to reach its destination.
Trains made the transportation of lumber quicker and more affordable, making it possible for the Australian sawmill industry to move inland.
[17] The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has taken a closer look at the AFFH industry's noise exposures and prevalence of hearing loss.
[citation needed] The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has found that fatalities of forestry and logging workers have increased from 2013 to 2016, up from 81 to 106 per year.
[citation needed] At the end of their normal usage, wood products can be burnt to obtain thermal energy or can be used as a fertilizer.
The potential environmental damage that a wood economy could occasion include a reduction of biodiversity due to monoculture forestry (the intensive cultivation of very few trees types); and CO2 emissions.
Much timber is removed for firewood by local populations in many countries, especially in the third world, but this amount can only be estimated, with wide margins of uncertainty.
Cut logs and branches destined to become elements for building construction accounted for approximately 55% of the world's industrial wood production.
[29] The booming Brazilian ethanol economy based upon sugar cane cultivation, is likewise reducing forests area.
[37][better source needed] The Canadian timber industry has led to environmental conflict with Indigenous people protecting their land from logging.
For example, the Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation set up the Grassy Narrows road blockade for twenty years beginning in 2002 to prevent clearcutting of their land.
[47] Poplar: in Italy is the most important species for tree plantations, is used for several purposes as plywood manufacture, packing boxes, paper, matches, etc.
Chemical pulping produces an excess of energy, since the organic matter in black liquor, mostly lignin and hemicellulose breakdown products, is burned in the recovery boiler.
[citation needed] A forest product is any material derived from forestry for direct consumption or commercial use, such as lumber, paper, or fodder for livestock.
[58] Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of impure carbon obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances.
[citation needed] In Japan, ancient buildings, of relatively high elevation, like pagodas, historically had shown to be able to resist earthquakes of high intensity, thanks to the traditional building techniques, employing elastic joints, and to the excellent ability of wooden frames to elastically deform and absorb severe accelerations and compressive shocks.
[citation needed] In 2006, Italian scientists from CNR patented[60] a building system that they called "SOFIE",[61] a seven-storey wooden building, 24 meters high, built by the "Istituto per la valorizzazione del legno e delle specie arboree" (Ivalsa) of San Michele all'Adige.
This Italian project, employed very thin and flexible panels in glued laminated timber, and according to CNR researchers could lead to the construction of much more safe houses in seismic areas.
As an example, the main component in the structure of battle ship USS Constitution, the world's oldest commissioned naval vessel afloat (launched in 1797) is white oak.
