Forest Products Week Recognition

Floor Speech

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I also rise today in recognition of National Forest Products Week and the men and women across our country that work in this crucial industry. Forest products have been an integral part of the North American economy even before our States were united.

From our beginnings, forest products built ships and were the main source of fuel. Through our industrialization, forest products became the foundation of our vast rail system and the media that fills our great libraries. Today so much of everything we get is shipped and contained in forest products. Forest products have always been the backbone of housing, a critical sector of our economy.

Forest products are green, renewable, and sequester carbon. We have been prolific in perfecting our conversion technologies, developing new products, and growing more timber. In fact, we have more trees today in America than in 1900.

To keep our forests healthy and our economy strong, we need to develop more markets at home and abroad for our forest products, and we need to commit more research to find cost-effective ways to utilize our woody biomass, a vast, renewable, carbon-neutral fuel source.

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