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An invaluable all in
one website (arkansastimber.info)
for Southwest Arkansas landowners and professionals has been created for
your personal, and our states collective economic benefit. This site has
extended applications for the entire state of Arkansas, and all 13
southern pine-belt states extending from East Texas to the Carolinas.
This site was
initiated through the efforts of Senator Blanche Lincoln, and involves:
- Economic
Development Administration (EDA)
- Southwest
Arkansas Planning and Development District (SWAPDD)
- Economic
Development at University of Arkansas in Little Rock (UALR)
- Reynolds
Forestry Consulting - RFC, Inc (RFC)
The site's
unofficial launch date was November 2003. Ongoing site corrections are
underway and expected to continue for several months. Upon update
completion, all excel based documents will dually be available for
viewing in "excel" and "pdf" format.
Its purpose: to
assist in the continued economic enhancement of our Arkansas timber
industry through communication, understanding, net-working, attracting,
challenging and stimulating landowners and professionals alike.
We must
acknowledge our predecessors and current producers for Arkansas' present
4th ranking in national production of timber, which is her number one
cash crop. The US collectively supplies the world with 15% of its annual
lumber consumption. The southern pine belt is the world's largest
sustained supplier of timber. Yet, if we stopped accepting imports, and
relied solely on US production for all domestic lumber consumption, we
would exhaust all collective US timber reserves.
There are 200
Million acres of timberland in the southeast 13 states. Over the next 40
years the nation is expected to loose 30 million acres to urban
expansion, mostly along the coast line, giving an added incentive to
enhance the production of timber in inland pine-belt states such as
Arkansas.
We have
approximately 33 million acres in Arkansas with over 18 million acres in
timberland. The timber industry in South Arkansas is the number one
employer. Industrial pine mills are our windows to the world for our
sustained timber products. Each year we carefully and voluntarily
through Sustained Forestry Initiatives (SFI) and Best Management
Practices (BMP) harvest only our pine growth providing us the
distinctive privilege of being sustained. Our 13 southeastern sister
states also share in our honor, which collectively ranks us as the words
largest sustained contiguous block of land. Poor stewardship is not an
option.
The average pine
plantation for non-industrial landowners in Arkansas annually produces
below 4 tons per acre per year. Industry landowners increased their
efficiency to over 7 tons per acre per year in response to world demand
and growing needs. Every man, woman, and child regardless of origin,
color, race, position, and creed deserve the same affordable
opportunities that we experience; and that can only be accomplished
through increased supply to meet growing domestic and world demands.
The average
non-industrial landowner rotates a stand of timber every 40 to 50 years,
while industrial landowners rotate crops every 25 - 35 years. The
precedence has been set.
If we intend for
Arkansas to continue competing nationally and internationally, we must
collectively grow more for less. Import tariffs are only a temporary
solution for the inevitable.
Cost to production
is the long term answer. The irony, even though expenses increase with
higher yields, cost to production decreases based on shorter rotations;
thereby yielding higher returns. This also permits competitive stumpage
prices, in turn which enables competitive lumber prices, which in turn
ensures increased domestic and world market participation.
Again, by growing
more, we can sale for less while increasing our return and
competitiveness in the world market; while simultaneously enhancing our
Arkansas economy, and we can do it, while tending the forest we love.
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