Paper or Firewood?

It might surprise people to learn that more wood is consumed in New York State in residential fireplaces than is used for paper. Finch in the Forest, a blog done by the Finch paper company, reports that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation estimates a million cords of firewood are used in homes in New York. That is approximately 2.6 million tons of firewood, compared to 1.1 million tons of pulpwood used by all the paper mills in the state to produce paper. Pulpwood and firewood come from the same parts of the tree.

That may sound like an alarming amount of wood, until you consider that wood, unlike heating oil, is a 100% renewable resource.  Responsible paper companies, like Finch, work hard to insure that our forests will be around for hundreds of years to come. The forest products industry plants an average of 4 million trees per day, about 5 trees per year for every person in the country. Properly managed forests sustain wildlife, water quality, air quality, and provide recreation opportunities as well as a sustainable source of wood products.