In Brazil Brazil has a long tradition in the harvesting of several types of trees with specific uses. Since the 1960s, imported species of pine tree and eucalyptus have been grown mostly for the
plywood and
paper pulp industries. Currently high-level research is being conducted, to apply the enzymes of
sugar cane fermentation to cellulose in wood, to obtain
methanol, but the cost is much higher when compared with ethanol derived from
corn costs. •
Brazilwood: has a dense, orange-red heartwood that takes a high red shine (brasa=ember), and it is the premier wood used for making bows for string instruments from the violin family. These trees soon became the biggest source of red
dye, and they were such a large part of the economy and export of that country, that slowly it was known as Brazil.
In Canada and the US There is a close relation in the forestry economy between these countries; they have many tree genera in common, and Canada is the main producer of wood and wooden items destined to the US, the biggest consumer of wood and its byproducts in the world. The water systems of the
Great Lakes,
Erie Canal,
Hudson River and
Saint Lawrence Seaway to the east coast and the
Mississippi River to the central plains and
Louisiana allows transportation of logs at very low costs. On the
west coast, the basin of the
Columbia River has plenty of forests with excellent timber.
Canada The agency Canada Wood Council calculates that in the year 2005 in Canada, the forest sector employed 930,000 workers (1 job in every 17), making around $108 billion of value in goods and services. For many years products derived from trees in Canadian forests had been the most important export items of the country. In 2011, exports around the world totaled some $64.3 billion – the single largest contributor to Canadian trade balance. Canada is the world leader in
sustainable forest management practices. Only (28% of Canadian forests) are currently managed for timber production while an estimated are protected from harvesting by the current legislation. The Canadian timber industry has led to
environmental conflict with
Indigenous people protecting their land from logging. For example, the
Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation set up the
Grassy Narrows road blockade for twenty years beginning in 2002 to prevent clearcutting of their land.
United States •
Cherry: a
hardwood prized for its high quality in grain, width, color, and rich warm glow. The first trees were carried to the lands surrounding
Rome (
Latium) from
Armenia. In the United States, most cherry trees are grown in
Washington,
Pennsylvania,
West Virginia, California and
Oregon. •
Cedar: this genus is a group of
conifers of the family
Pinaceae, originating from high mountain areas from the
Carpathians,
Lebanon and
Turkey to the
Himalayas. Their scented wood make them suitable for chests and closet lining. Cedar oil and wood is known to be a natural repellent to moths. Actually are planted in western and southern US, mostly for ornamental purposes, but also for the production of
pencils (specially
incense-cedar). •
Douglas fir: a native tree of the United States
west coast and
Mountain States, with records in fast growth and high statures in brief time. The
coast Douglas fir grows in coastal regions up to altitudes of about 1,800 meters; the
Rocky Mountain Douglas fir grows farther inland, at altitudes ranging from 800 m to 3,000 m or higher. The wood is used for construction, for
homebuilt aircraft, for paper pulp, and also as
firewood. •
Hybrid poplar is being investigated by
Oak Ridge National Laboratory in
Tennessee for
genetic engineering to obtain a tree with a higher content of
cellulose and a lower content in
lignin, in such a way that the extraction of
bioethanol (useful as a fuel) could be easier and less expensive. •
Walnut: a prized furniture and carving hardwood because of its colour, hardness, grain and durability. Walnut wood has been the timber of choice for gun makers for centuries. It remains one of the most popular choices for rifle and shotgun stocks.
Nigeria Wood obtained from
Nigeria's wood industry undergoes processing in various wood processing sectors, including furniture manufacturing, sawmill operations, plywood mills, pulp and paper facilities, and particleboard mills. As of 2010, workers are typically not given any safety training.
In the Caribbean and Central America •
Mahogany: has a straight grain, usually free of voids and pockets. The most prized species come from
Cuba and
Honduras. It has a reddish-brown color, which darkens over time, and displays a beautiful reddish sheen when polished. It has excellent workability, is available in big boards, and is very durable. Mahogany is used in the making of many musical instruments, as drums, acoustic and electric guitars' back and side, and luxury
headphones.
In Europe Italy Poplar: in Italy is the most important species for tree plantations, is used for several purposes as
plywood manufacture, packing boxes, paper,
matches, etc. It needs good quality grounds with good drainage, but can be used to protect the cultivations if disposed in
windbreak lines. More than 70% of Italian poplar cultivations are located in the
pianura Padana. Constantly the extension of the cultivation is being reduced, from 650 km2 in the 1980s to current 350 km2. The yield of poplars is about 1,500 t/km2 of wood every year. The production from poplars is around 45–50% of the total Italian wood production.
Portugal •
Oak for
cork: are trees with a slow growth, but long life, are cultivated in warm hill areas (min. temp. > −5 °C) in all the west area of
Mediterranean shores. Cork is popular as a material for
bulletin boards. Even if the production as
stoppers for wine bottles is diminishing in favor of nylon stoppers, in the sake of energy saving granules of cork can be mixed into concrete. These composites have low thermal conductivity, low density and good energy absorption (earthquake resistant). Some of the property ranges of the composites are density (400–1500 kg/m3), compressive strength (1–26 MPa) and flexural strength (0.5–4.0 MPa).
In Fennoscandia and Russia with
floating logs in
Kotka,
Finland Source: In Sweden, Finland and to an extent Norway, much of the land area is forested, and the pulp and paper industry is one of the most significant industrial sectors. Chemical pulping produces an excess of energy, since the organic matter in
black liquor, mostly
lignin and
hemicellulose breakdown products, is burned in the
recovery boiler. Thus, these countries have high proportions of renewable energy use (25% in Finland, for instance). Considerable effort is directed towards increasing the value and usage of forest products by companies and by government projects. •
Scots pine and
Norway spruce: These species comprise most of the boreal forest, and together as a softwood mixture they are converted into chemical pulp for paper. •
Birch is a genus with many species of trees in
Scandinavia and Russia, excellent for acid soils. These act as
pioneer species in the frozen border between
taiga and
tundra, and are very resistant to periods of drought and
icy conditions. The species
Betula nana has been identified as the ideal tree for the acid, nutrient-poor soils of mountain slopes, where these trees can be used to restrain
landslides, including in southern Europe.
Dissolving pulp is produced from birch.
Xylitol can be produced by the hydrogenation of
xylose, which is a byproduct of chemical birch pulping. == Outputs ==