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Ag News -
Ag Briefs
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Monday, 25 February 2013 16:45 |
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MANHATTAN, Kan. -- It may surprise
many that a state forestry agency has
served Kansans for more than 125 years, or that
there are 5.2 million acres
of forestland, agroforests and trees in the state
that provide important
environmental benefits.
"However, it is probably the economic
benefits of the forest industry that
are most often overlooked by Kansans,"
according to Bob Atchison, rural
forestry coordinator with the Kansas Forest
Service.
A recent analysis by Tom Treiman, natural resource
economist with the
Missouri Department of Conservation, showed that
the Kansas forest products
industry contributed $1.5 billion annually to the
state's economy.
The industry supports more than 6,700 jobs at a
payroll of about $360
million and is responsible for more than $43
million in taxes that help to
run our state and country and another $69 million
in federal taxes.
"These numbers include not only the direct
effect of jobs in the primary
wood processing industry, such as logging and
sawmill operations, but also
the indirect and 'induced' effects in the
secondary wood products industry,
such as cabinet shops, pallet manufacturing and so
on," Atchison said. "This
is especially true since loggers, saw mill
operators, and carpenters, after
all, buy groceries and gas just like the rest of
us."
Sources of Treiman's data come from the U.S.
Bureau of Economic Analysis,
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, the
Minnesota IMPLAN Group and the Kansas Forest
Service at Kansas State
University.
"And that $1.5 billion doesn't even include
the value of a day spent walking
in Kansas's woods with your family trying to spot
a migrating warbler or
next season's big buck," Atchison said.
More information is available at the Kansas Forest
Service website at
www.kansasforests.org. |
