Top 20 Most Forested States in the U.S.

Ramish Cheema
8 min read

In this piece, we will take a look at the top 20 forested states in the U.S. For more states, head on over to Top 5 Forested States in the U.S.

As the global population continues to grow and the demand for wood increases, so does the burden on the world's forests. Therefore, the world's forests are declining, with data from the European Union showing that currently, net forest loss sits at 4.8 million hectares per year.

A large number of people in the world continue to live in forests. And these are also some of the most impoverished populations. The EU believes that the 250 million people that live in forests often live on less than $1.25 per day. The forestry industry, on the other hand, is quite lucrative. This is natural since timber and wood products play an important role in different industries. Speaking in numeric terms, the global forestry and logging market was worth $176 billion in 2021 and is slated to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.1% until 2028 for a final value of $2.4 billion according to estimates from Business Research Insights. As expected, the research firm believes that this growth is being stimulated due to the growth in the use of timber in the construction industry. However, at the same time, it also adds that the industry has slowed down its growth because of stringent regulatory requirements that have limited tree felling to prevent natural disasters resulting from deforestation such as floods.

These requirements and the world's hunger for wood have also led to the creation of new industries to balance the needs of the environment and population growth. One such industry is precision forestry. Forestry, according to the consulting and research firm McKinsey, is ripe for digitization. This is due to the fact that as opposed to its close cousin agriculture, the sector still relies on centuries-old processes and sees little corporate involvement. The application of technology to improve forest management is called precision forestry. These technologies provide forest managers and other firms with significant advantages such as lowering the delivered costs for wood, increasing wood yields, collecting data on a massive scale to generate insights, automating operations, and facilitating tree growth by improving plantation procedures. They have enabled significant automation in forestry, allowing companies to autonomously cut trees and gauge their quality, determine the wood inventory of forests, and prevent diseases from breaking out. Cumulatively speaking, precision forestry is impacting the full value chain of forestry, from nurseries to harvesting, and wood delivery.

Recommended Stories