The American hardwood forest is vast. It stretches in a great swathe across the eastern US states, an area, says the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), bigger than the UK and Netherlands combined.
Even with that comparison, it’s hard to imagine the sheer scale of the resource. But visit AHEC’s website (www. americanhardwood.org) and click into its interactive forest map and you don’t have to.
Just updated to be even more current, precise and user-friendly, this leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination.
The map is just one of the tools AHEC has developed using latest hard data to demonstrate and communicate the sustainability and diversity of the forest, plus the commitment to maintaining it of the American hardwood industry – the world’s biggest hardwood supplier.
In an international marketplace increasingly concerned about the holistic environmental impact of construction and manufacturing materials, the map’s target audience includes timber buyers, specifiers, such as architects and designers, and endusers.
It enables you to see precisely where the forest is, its growth rates and timber offtake. It can provide a snapshot of the entire forest for those who want a quick overview.
If you want to go deeper, you can look at the spread and abundance of individual US hardwood species and drill down from national, through state, right down to county level. No hardwood forest and timber sector in the world, says AHEC, is backed with a greater breadth and depth of information, is more transparent and open in sharing it, or presents it more clearly.
“Architects, designers and others we’ve demonstrated the map to subsequently say they see the American hardwood sector in a new light,” said AHEC European director David Venables. “There’s an inherent trust internationally in the sustainability of the US forest, but the map underpins that with the facts and figures. It really opens users’ eyes. What also makes an impression, and something we stress, is that the American hardwood forest renews naturally, with minimal human intervention and use of pesticides and other chemicals. Of course, there’s a place for tree planting and plantations in some parts of the world. But natural forest has been shown to be especially resilient and rich in biodiversity.”
AHEC analyst Rupert Oliver was one of the people behind the initial creation of the map in 2017 and has been closely involved in latest developments. It draws, he explains, on a heritage of forest monitoring and a level of experience and expertise in forest data analysis that are second to none.
“The US started taking mandatory national forest inventories 90 years ago,” he said. “At the outset it was every 10 years, then every five and subsequently more frequently as analysis capacity and monitoring techniques and technology developed. This has evolved into today’s US Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA), which is conducted on a continuous rolling basis. It’s a vast undertaking, covering federal, state and privately owned forest – and there are an estimated 10 million private owners in the US. In terms of the level and quantity of data, it is unmatched by any hardwood producer. And it’s this data on which AHEC’s Interactive Forest map is based.”
The FIA’s website (www.fia.fs.fed.us) explains just what level of detail it goes into. It reports on status and trends in forest area and location; species, size, and health of trees; total tree growth, mortality, and removals by harvest; and wood production and utilisation rates by various products and forest land ownership. It covers urban trees in selected cities and even monitors forest soil condition and ‘lichen community composition’.
The map’s latest developments have included building in more of the FIA data, while keeping it clear and straightforward for anyone to use – quite a task, according to Mr Oliver.
AHEC has used an online system provided by the US Forest Service called EVALIDator to grab the data,” he said. “The information has then been organised and reformatted for upload to the map for anyone to access. The system will enable it to be updated every two years and potentially annually. In addition, it now links to individual state Forest Action Plans (www.stateforesters.org). These provide a full review of state forest resources and harvest levels. They identify issues with forest management and cover land use planning, wildlife and broader biodiversity strategies and more.”
Another major initiative from AHEC to demonstrate the environmental credentials of American hardwood was to commission a forest-wide risk analysis study by independent natural resources consultancy Seneca Creek Associates. Originally focused primarily on legality, its recently issued new edition examines sustainability more closely. You can download the whole in-depth 200-page report from AHEC’s website, but the forest map site now includes specific highlights.
“It incorporates the report appendix, which lists the 14 most widely internationally accepted criteria of sustainability and explains how the US hardwood forest industry meets each one,” said Mr Oliver.
The map is also designed to be used in conjunction with AHEC’s online life cycle analysis (LCA) tool and American Hardwood Environmental Profile (AHEP).
The LCA tool details the carbon and a range of other environmental impacts of shipping a quantity of the main commercial US hardwoods anywhere in the world. It also includes a calculator which shows rates of renewal, with a cubic metre of walnut, for instance, replaced every 6.84 seconds and a cubic metre of red oak every 0.57 seconds.
The AHEP document incorporates much of this information, plus proof of origin and legality and other detail. It’s used by shippers to accompany US hardwood consignments to any international destination and has been referred to as a ‘green passport’.
“Users can take the information provided by the LCA tool and AHEP, then use the map to investigate further what’s happening on the ground in the forest where the timber originates,” said Mr Oliver.
“They are three complementary tools underlining the sustainability and legality of US hardwoods.”
Europe Remains Key Market
In 2019, US sawn hardwood export value to Europe declined 9.5% to US$268m while export volume decreased 9% to 336,000m3. The decline was common to all main European markets, although it was larger in Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal than in the UK.
The fall in exports to the EU, following four years of growth, formed part of a wider downturn in global trade. Last year, worldwide US hardwood exports were down 25% in value to US$1.88bn and 20% in volume to 3.25 million m3. The downturn in international trade followed on from the US-China trade dispute and Chinese economic slowdown, which led to a 39% fall in US sawn hardwood exports to China to 1.26 million m3. This meant that despite Europe’s import contraction, its share of total US sawn hardwood export value increased from 12% in 2018 to 14% in 2019.
For US hardwood exports to Europe, the slowing economy had a detrimental effect on exchange rates, contributing to a 4% decline in the value of the euro against the dollar. Sterling also dipped to an all-time low against the dollar and other top currencies mid-2019, although it later rallied.
At the same time, the euro and sterling remained reasonably strong relative to eastern European supply countries’ currencies, including Ukraine and Russia, which favoured importing European hardwoods.
The turmoil in China may have had an impact on European demand for US hardwoods, reducing pressure on supply of European oak. It also led to a weakening in prices for some US hardwoods when demand in Europe was cooling and importers were sitting on more expensive stocks purchased late 2018/early 2019. Importers were consequently reluctant to build stock on a declining market.
US sawn hardwood exports to the UK were 108,500m3 in 2019. This was 3% less than in 2018, but still putting them at the second highest level since 2001. Exports to Ireland were down 9% to 12,900m3.
By species, US exports to Europe of white oak were down 10% at 168,000m3 in 2019, while tulipwood declined 7% to 81,000m3.
US exports of red oak to Europe, a key focus of AHEC marketing, rose 17% to 25,000m3, the second highest level in two decades. Red oak growth was concentrated in the UK, Sweden and France. Exports of ash also increased, by 4% to 26,000m3, while those of walnut were down 3% on 2018, but higher than in 2017. Looking forward, the EU’s Winter Economic Forecast in February stated that “the balance of global economic risks remains tilted to the downside despite the ‘Phase One’ trade deal between the US and China”.
The Covid-19 pandemic was identified as a new downside risk, with the forecast stating that the longer it lasts, the higher the likelihood of knock-on effects on economic sentiment.
