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Are we at risk of running out of trees?

• spenczar5 5y ago
  No.
• tengbretson 5y ago
  No.
• pmorici 5y ago
  No, in fact prices for raw logs haven't moved at all. The US government subsidized the planting of trees on farm land in the 80's to boost the price of corn and soybeans and there is an over supply of trees. Supposedly the shortage is all due to mill capacity.
  • reportingsjr 5y ago
    Unrelated to forestry, but you make a point that I'm curious about. If or when electric cars take over, what's going to happen with all of the farmland that's planted with corn for ethanol production? It looks like around of 1/3rd of planted corn in the US is used for ethanol production for cars. https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10339 https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10339 I have a feel a lot of farms are going to turn in to more sprawling suburbs when some monster subsidies get passed to build out these abandoned farms.
    • pmorici 5y ago
      The cost of land is not what is keeping farmland from being turned into housing. Most farmland is very far from urban and suburban places people want to live. If it doesn't make sense to plant because of low prices they will simply let it lay fallow.