Hardwoods are Us

- Hi, Sanford Smith here, with Penn State Extension.

Today, I'm joined by John Geyer, and John is the Executive Director of the Hardwood Development Council for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

John, that's a very long title.

It's a, kind of a cryptic name for an organization.

If people don't know what hardwoods are, what are hardwoods?

- So, hardwoods are deciduous trees.

The trees with leaves.

- Okay.

Do they have hard wood?

- Sometimes, yeah, most times.

- Most of the times, okay.

- Now, why is that a big deal here, in Pennsylvania?

- So, 90% of our forest resource that we have here, in Pennsylvania, is hardwood trees.

- Okay, what do we use 'em for?

- Well, we have an industry that makes all sorts of products out of those hardwood trees.

But basically, you're gonna make hardwood flooring, cabinets, furniture, even make baseball bats out of hardwood trees.

Lots of uses.

They're very durable products.

- And I understand that Pennsylvania is sort of the heartland for hardwood trees in the United States, and then we sort of have more hardwoods than just about anybody.

- Yes, so we lead the nation in the overall volume of hardwoods that we have, how much hardwood lumber we produce, and how much hardwood lumber we export, yeah.

So, hardwoods offer more diversity in color and appearance, so they tend to be used for finishing woods.

Those things that you're gonna look at or sit on.

Whereas, softwoods, you're building your home with them.

So, the framing lumber.

That comes from the southeast, the western part of the US, and then even Canada.

- Okay, so we got that clear now.

Hardwoods are really the dominant tree in Pennsylvania.

They're the more valuable kind of tree to make lumber out of, to make things.

And Pennsylvania's really the home of this special resource, isn't it?

- [John] It is.

- [Sanford] Tell us some of the species that are the most famous, when it comes to our hardwoods.

- [John] Well, Pennsylvania's known for its black cherry, but we're also home to red oak, white oak, sugar maple, the hickories, all sorts of other hardwood trees.

- [Sanford] So, hardwoods are, really are us.

Let's talk a little bit about what the Hardwood Development Council does.

- So, everything that the Hardwood Development Council does revolves around promotion, expansion, and development of the forest products industry that revolve around our hardwood forest.

- [Sanford] And that industry are the mills and the manufacturing plants?

- [John] Yes, but also the foresters, the loggers, the secondary wood product manufacturers.

Here, in Pennsylvania, there's over 60,000 employees within the forest products industry.

- All right.

So, that's kind of the lofty goal.

How do you do some of these things?

I know that the Hardwood Development Council does a lot of public education.

- [John] Yep, yeah, that work takes many different forms.

Our main public education unit is the Pennsylvania Wood Mobile, which is a traveling educational trailer that goes all across the state to schools, fairs, festivals, and teaches kids and the general public about sustainability, why we need to manage our forest, about invasive insects.

But then, also, with the end goal of teaching people that, hey, wood is good.

It's a resource that we can utilize.

- Yeah, very environmentally friendly product, isn't it?

So, the Development Council does that.

I know you're also involved in workforce development a little bit too.

- Yep, yeah, we're always trying to recruit the next generation of the forest products industry.

We have a website called PAForestCareers.com that really explains all the career opportunities and even has career opportunities that are currently available within our industry.

- There's this element of international market to hardwoods.

Tell us about that.

- Yeah, so Pennsylvania is the number one hardwood exporter, and rightfully so, because we have the most hardwood, but also we produce very high quality hardwood.

And many countries are interested in that high quality hardwood.

I've been to Canada, China, Mexico, Europe multiple times to connect manufacturers in those countries with Pennsylvania hardwood suppliers.

- So, you've seen, through this video, some of the products that are produced from our hardwoods.

We say, when we look at hardwoods, we talk about the beauty and the appearance of them as the figure of the wood.

And hardwoods really have beautiful grain, texture, color, things like that.

John, what are some of the things that you'd like people to take away after interacting with the Hardwood Development Council or any of your programs?

- So, the major takeaway is that Pennsylvania's forest work, they're a working forest ecosystem that provides so many benefits.

Not just timber, but also clean air, clean water, carbon storage, and sequestration through wood products, recreational opportunities, wildlife habitat.

But it all starts with that forest management goal.

A healthy forest is a working forest.

- Well, it's fascinating to learn about our hardwoods.

We have this huge hardwood resource all around us in Pennsylvania.

If you wanna know more information about the Hardwood Development Council, their website address is right here below, and I hope that you'll check it out.

And also, if you get to the farm show, they can see the Wood Mobile, if they haven't seen it somewhere else in the state.

Thank you very much for joining me today.

- Of course.

- And thank you folks for listening.