Figure 14 compares employment in key sectors within the Northern Forest Lands Study Area. Wood products employment totals 43,601, about 36 percent of total manufacturing employment within the study area. Almost 69 percent of total manufacturing employment within the New Hampshire study area, and almost 60 percent of manufacturing employment within the Maine study area.

Source, Fig. 14: Minnesota IMPLAN Group, Inc.

 Figure 15 illustrates employment and income (wages paid in millions of dollars) for the various sub-sectors that make up the lumber and paper manufacturing industries in Maine, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont. Total primary and secondary employment in wood products, wood furniture and paper manufacturing exceeds 115,500 and total annual income exceeds $4.32 billion.

Source, Fig. 15: Minnesota IMPLAN Group, Inc.

Figure 16 illustrates employment and income (wages paid in millions of dollars) for the various forest industry sub-sectors that operate in counties within the Northern Forest Lands Study Area. Total employment in wood products manufacturing exceeds 43,000 and total annual income is $1.77 billion. Primary and secondary paper products employment (24,399) exceeds employment in primary and secondary lumber products (19,202) by 5,197. More than half of all wood products employment and income generated in the study area is in Maine.

Source, Fig. 14: Minnesota IMPLAN Group, Inc.

Figure17 compares basic employment and income (on a percentage basis) for key sectors of the economy for states within the Northern Forest Lands Study Area. Note that in Maine (which accounts for 58 % of the study area) 19.1% of basic employment and 25.3% of basic income is in the wood products sector. However, in New York (where jobs and wages are concentrated in the greater New York City area) the industry’s contributions are barely negligible. Also, note that for the region, the tourist-related sectors of basic income and employment (eating, drinking and lodging) is only a fraction of wood products basic income and employment. The single exception is Vermont, where tourist employment exceeds wood product employment. However, basic wood product income in Vermont exceeds basic tourist income.

Source, Fig. 17: Minnesota IMPLAN Group, Inc.

Maine’s Paper Industry
Maine’s pulp and paper production has been increasing since 1950—a fact that should serve to dispel an oft-repeated environmentalist claim that the industry is in decline. Fig. 18 tracks more than 40 years of steady growth.

Source, Fig. 18: Atlas of the Resources of Maine, Supplement Feb. 1987, The Forests of Maine; Current Ind. Rept. MA26A (89)-1 to 1989; and Paper 1991–1993 from AFPA. Pulp not available after 1989.

Lumber Production in Maine
Maine’s lumber production has been increasing steadily since 1954. (Fig. 19) Production lagged during the late 1970s global recession, then shot up again after interest rates fell and the homebuilding industry recovered. Production dipped again in 1989 on recession fears, but has increased steadily ever since.

The Northeast’s lumber industry accounts for about 7% of all softwood and hardwood lumber manufactured in the U. S. East, a region that includes all states east of the Continental Divide. Softwood lumber production in the four-state Northeast is about twice hardwood lumber production, but hardwood lumber production in New York State is more than four times softwood production. The major softwood lumber species are spruce, fir and eastern white pine, while the major hardwood species are oak and maple.

Source, Fig. 19: Steer 1948, and U.S. Department of Commerce, Lumber Production and Milstocks.