Forestry & Logging

Forestry and logging (NAICS 113) covers timber harvesting, forest management services, and the gathering of non-timber forest products across roughly 750 million acres of U.S. forestland. The Pacific Northwest — particularly Oregon and Washington — dominates softwood production, while the Southeast from Georgia to Virginia leads in pine plantation harvesting. Weyerhaeuser, the largest private timberland owner in North America, and Rayonier manage millions of acres under Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification frameworks.

Operations span large-scale commercial harvest by integrated timber companies down to independent logging contractors running a single feller buncher crew. The U.S. Forest Service administers timber sales on 193 million acres of national forest, while the Bureau of Land Management oversees additional federal timberlands primarily in Oregon. Harvesting on federal land requires compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Endangered Species Act, and the Northwest Forest Plan — constraints that have concentrated commercial activity on private and state lands over the past three decades.

Mechanized harvesting using cut-to-length systems and forwarders has replaced much of the manual felling that defined the industry through the 1980s. This shift raised capital requirements for contractors but reduced fatality rates tracked by OSHA. The sector increasingly intersects with carbon markets: California's Cap-and-Trade Program and voluntary registries like the American Carbon Registry create revenue streams for landowners who defer harvest or improve forest stocking, adding a financial layer that did not exist a decade ago.