ESCANABA — Wood products are part of the lifeblood of our existence. We may not often think about wood in our lives but it is essential and wood shows-up in thousands of ways in many forms.

There are too many essentials in our individual lives, and collective economy, to become informed and fluent about all of them. This is part of the reason we rely on experts to perform their respective functions as part of society. However, experts sometimes disagree to an extent, which can appear confusing to the public dialogue.

Wood and wood products are areas of specialization that fit among this matrix of interdependency. Wood stands large among those raw materials that we cannot live without, things such as metals, minerals, petroleum, food, and so many others.

The media frequently focus on non-timber aspects of forests and forestry, most of which are good and beneficial. However, we disregard the indispensable role of wood production at our peril.

Wood has qualities that distinctly set it apart from other raw materials. It is renewable. Forests produce far more benefits than wood only. Wood manufacturing consumes the least amount of inputs, leaving the smallest environmental footprint.

We should be using more wood, where it makes sense to replace other materials, to the extent of biological and economic potential.

Wood is good. Wood products are smart. Lakes States forest management ranks among the best in the world. It grows better all the time. Far less wood is extracted from forests than the forests can accommodate. Forest area and forest volumes are increasing. Nearly all harvested areas regenerate well, except perhaps those that are overbrowsed by deer.

A robust forest industry provides markets for the wide and full diversity of harvested products. This means that we can better manage our forests, as management cannot occur without markets. A less robust forest industry translates to fewer management options, often followed by lower quality forests with more health challenges.

Forest industry is good. Across the Lake States, its economic role exceeds 83 billion dollars. Compared to the region’s 1.3 trillion-dollar GDP, the forest industry might not seem large, but it ranks among the top employers and economic contributors in each state. There is plenty of room for growth, and wise use, across the region.

Forestry is good. To some, the critical environmental role of forestry appears counter intuitive. Our forest resource is the legacy from our great-grandfathers of the historic logging era. It is a significantly different and disturbed heir of what it once was. This is an important theater to understand as we work to protect and enhance water quality, habitat, soil integrity, carbon issues, and other values.

Altered ecological dynamics and new pressures threaten forests in ways inconceivable a century ago, or even half that amount of time. Management is required to deal with phenomena such as climate change, exotic species, overabundant deer, ownership parcelization, benign neglect, and others. And, of course, to maintain a stable supply of wood products. Additionally, there are reasons for concern about our wood supply that have little to do with the availability of wood.

Forestry is far more complex than “just cutting trees”, although logging, alone, is also far from a simple set of operations.

Consider the volumes of natural mortality that exceed what is harvested. This imbalance is new over the past decade, as our forests age and average tree diameters increase. A portion of this mortality might better be used to drive a more vibrant wood-based industry, with outputs such as better forest health, increased economic activity, and substitution for raw materials that possess much higher environmental footprints.

Like so many elements of our massive and convoluted economy, decisions made about forestry and the wood products industry should consider the expertise of those who build careers in the various aspects of the sector, from foresters and loggers, to industry leaders. We commonly depend on the recommendations of experts from many other fields, from financial advisors and medical professionals, to those that repair our homes and build our cars.

Unfortunately, skewed public opinions, especially among legislators, too often color how forestry and logging are carried out. But, this is not unique to the forest industry. One of the many threads that appear to run through the public psyche is that cutting trees is bad, for a myriad of beliefs. In fact, just the opposite is far more commonly true, especially when looking at the big picture and employing full life cycle analyses.