There are 765 million forestland acres covering the U.S. today. The majority of forestland, 443 million (or 69%), is privately managed. 238 million acres (31%) are federally managed, and state and local governments oversee 84 million acres.
The forest products industry has an annual economic output of $288 billion and employs 950,000 people. Approximately 159 million people visit the U.S. Forest Service-managed forestlands each year.
Environmentalists argue that forests must be rewilded and returned to pre-human settlement conditions to allow them to flourish. That is a false choice. Healthy forests, instead, are a result of proactive forest management practices.
Here’s the issue of forest management in 60 seconds: