Where does the U.S. get wood and lumber from?

Talk about timber, lumber and wood products from Canada has been in the news lately, and you probably have questions. 

Don’t we need all that Canadian wood? What will happen if we don’t get it from Canada? What is the wood we import used for?

We have some answers. Wood is a valuable resource, but so, too, are living forests. Here’s what you need to know about where U.S. lumber comes from and how it is used.

First, here are some definitions. Timber means unprocessed wood, it has been cut down but turned into anything. Lumber is wood that has been processed and turned into boards.

Canada supplies a lot of lumber to the U.S.

Canada does not supply all of the lumber we use in the U.S., but it does provide a lot of it. Canada accounts for nearly half of all U.S. lumber imports.

Canada, with its sprawling forests and well-established lumber industry, has an enormous capacity to produce and export softwood. In the U.S., we don’t currently process enough softwood lumber to meet our own demand alone – so we import some from other countries. As our nearest neighbor, Canada is a convenient place to do business with, especially since well-established supply chains make transporting lumber from Canadian forests to American builders more efficient than getting it from other countries.

Some lumber comes from the Canadian boreal forest.

The sprawling Canadian boreal is the largest remaining intact forest on the planet — but it’s shrinking fast. The boreal forest is being logged at a rate of 1 million acres per year — or one and a half football fields every minute. 

That’s a big problem for our planet. Intact forests, especially undisturbed, healthy ones like the boreal, provide innumerable benefits to humans and the natural world. 

The Canadian boreal provides habitat for wildlife of all kinds: caribou, lynx, wood bison, moose, wolves, and more. Nearly half of the birds in North America use the forest in some way each year, either as a year-round home or a migratory destination.

Plus, the boreal is critical to the Earth’s ability to resist climate change. The boreal forest absorbs enough carbon each year to offset the global warming pollution of 24 million cars.

Using the boreal more thoughtfully, and logging it less, is a good idea for the conservation of this important ecosystem.

The Trump administration is calling to replace Canadian lumber with U.S. production.

One way to spare the boreal could be to cut down on the demand for Canadian lumber by sourcing more trees from right here in America. The Trump administration is calling to replace Canadian lumber with domestic production — but is such a thing possible?

It’s hard to estimate for sure, but based on the existing U.S. softwood supply and sawmill capacity, it does not seem likely that U.S. industry could make up the entire shortfall that would result from ceasing Canadian lumber imports completely, at least over the short term.

But the fact is, no matter where the trees are cut down, not all of the timber we produce is put to good use.

Towering trees transformed into lumber and paper pulp.

The destruction of our planet’s priceless forest ecosystems is happening in part to produce paper pulp.

Portions of the trees felled in the boreal – and elsewhere – are shredded into wood pulp that in turn goes on to become household paper products like toilet paper, facial tissues and paper towels.

But we don’t need to chop down forests to create paper products. There are many possible alternatives that can be used to create the tissue products we need.

Recycled wood fibers are a great option, because they keep paper out of the landfill at the same time as they provide raw material for new paper goods. But other sustainably harvested fibers, like bamboo, hemp and wheat straw fibers are potential options, too.

Our forests are full of trees that are worth more standing.

No matter where we source our lumber and pulp in the future, we should make sure we don’t double down on the mistakes we’re making now. Cutting down critical habitats like the boreal forest or mature and old-growth trees and forests on U.S. public land is not the right way forward.

Our forests are full of trees that are worth more standing – but unless we protect them, these forests won’t last long.

Take action to protect forests

The so-called “Fix Our Forests” Act will open the door to logging on millions of acres of federal land. If this misleadingly-named bill becomes law, it will immediately roll back vital protection for endangered species and accelerate logging.

Our forests deserve to stay standing tall. Send a message to your U.S. senators urging them to vote “no” on the pro-logging “Fix Our Forests” Act.