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Texas Forestry Products

The forests of Texas vary widely, as does the state's landscape and terrain. From the pine forests of the east to the mesquite scrub country in the west, useful forest products can be culled from a large variety of trees and forest ecosystems. Perhaps the most common product of Texan forests is milled lumber, but the long list of available forest products includes firewood, fence posts, hewed timbers, turpentine and even edible nuts.

Texas Forest Facts
- As the second largest state in the union, Texas generates a large number of forest products. Even with a large majority of the state's commercial forests located in the eastern section of the state,Texas still managed to produce 479.8 million cubic feet of timber in 2009. The final economic value of this raw timber was valued at $494.8 million. Further economic breakdown of the wood products included 1.4 billion board feet of lumber, 2.0 billion square feet of structural panels, and 2.0 million tons of pulp and paper products. Other wood materials include treated wood, millwork, kitchen cabinets, prefabricated wood buildings, furniture, and various paper products.
Lumber
- Milled lumber is a major component of Texas's wood products output. Milled lumber products are created when either softwood or hardwood logs are taken to a sawmill and cut into planks and differently sized boards. After the cutting process is complete, most of the wood is kiln-dried to reduce the moisture content of the wood and increase the usability of the final material. In Texas, yellow pine is one of the major lumber products. This wood comes from several species of pines including, longleaf, loblolly, slash or shortleaf. Milled lumber can also be created from bald cypress, eastern red cedar, red or white oak, tulip poplar and white ash.
Pulpwood
- Paper and fiber products are created when pieces of softwood trees are cut and mashed in a large vat to create a pulpy mixture. A few chemicals are added and then this brine is run through a paper mill and dried to create a wide array of paper products or fiber items such as chipboard or hardboard. Pulpwood can come from conifers such as pine, fir and hemlock or softwood deciduous trees, like yellow poplar, cottonwood, sweet gum, birch and planted eucalyptus.
Wood Biomass
- As fuel prices increase, the use of biomass from forest trees for producing energy is very close to becoming a reality. Within the state several projects are in the planning or development stage, where wood chips and sawdust would be burned to create heat and/or electricity. This raw material would come from mill or logging waste or detritus.
Texas State Tree
- The Texas state tree is the wild pecan, which produces not only a tasty and edible nut, but also a fine-grained lumber product. Since the 1800s, pecan trees have been widely planted in Texas for the commercial production of their thin-shelled nuts. These cultivated plants have been developed through grafting and genetic selection over generations for the quality and quantity of their edible by-products.

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