Arizona Forest

Restoration Products Inc.

Wood Usage

Several units of measurement are used to quantify the wood usage required for the manufacturing of oriented strand boards (OSB).

While volume and mass exact measurements vary slightly due to geographical or seasonal factors such as moisture content, fiber density, etc. area exact measurements can vary from simple to double due to the pattern of harvesting selected (continuous vs. mosaic), how treatment is defined (diameter at breast height (DBH) of trees harvested), and the definition of fiber vs. biomass (diameter at tops).

Local conditions in Northern Arizona indicate a baseline wood usage defined as follows:

• Volume: approximately 50 to 55 cubic feet of small diameter green logs (with bark) are typically required to produce 1,000 square feet of OSB 3/8” thick.

• Mass: given a typical 42% moisture content, 1 cubic foot of ponderosa pine green logs (with bark) typically weighs approximately 58 to 64 lbs or 0.029 to 0.032 US short ton. As a result, it typically takes around 1.7 US ton of small diameter green logs (with bark) to produce 1,000 square feet of OSB 3/8” thick.

• Surface: an average of 800 to 1,200 cubic feet (8 to 12 ccf, or 25 to 38 US tons) of green logs with bark are typically harvested per acre in Northern Arizona during small diameter thinning operations.

The standardized forestry and wood industry units of measure are:

• 1 ccf = 100 cf = 100 ft³ (cubic feet)

• 1 ton (short U.S.) = 2,000 lbs (pounds)

• 1 msf = 1,000 sf = 1,000 ft² (square feet)

For the purpose of annual planning, the average field conversions retained are:

• 1 msf (1,000 ft²) => 55 cf (ft³)

• 1 cf (ft³) => 64 lbs = 0.032 ton

• 1 ccf (100 ft³) = 3.2 ton

• 1 acre => 8 ccf (800 ft³) = 25.6 tons

In view of the above, for a typical annual production capacity of 470,000 msf - 3/8” (470 million square feet of board 3/8” thick), Arizona Forest Restoration Products will require approximately a maximum of 258,000 ccf (25.8 million cubic feet) or 827,000 tons of green logs (with bark).

Harvesting this wood will allow approximately 32,000 acres of forest to be thinned annually.

Note: In recent years, the Forest Service has converted their practices for measuring timber volume from board-feet (BF) to cubic feet (CF). Conversion varies with log size, but typically in Northern Arizona the conversion rate is 1 CF = 4 to 6 BF, or 1 BF = 0.17 to 0.25 CF.

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