Paper Production and U.S. Forests Approximately 79 million tons of paper was produced in the U.S. in 2013. Recovered fiber accounts for 37% of the wood fiber used. Some of this fiber is lost in processing, with the result that about a third of the volume of paper and paperboard produced is made up of recovered fiber. The remaining two-­‐thirds comes from trees harvested as pulpwood, wood chips, and other residues obtained from sawmill trimmings. On a mass basis, over 65 million tons of roundwood (dry basis), or 36% of the annual U.S. timber harvest, is used each year in manufacturing paper and paperboard. When chips and other residues are considered, the percent of harvest going to paper and paperboard production rises to about 47%. Typically, more than 65% of the nation’s pulpwood harvest is derived from the Southeastern region. In recent years, this percentage has risen to over 81%. Virtually all of that harvest is obtained from privately owned forestland. Individuals and families, private investment groups, and the forest industry own 57% of forestland in the United States. These lands provide 89% of the annual wood harvest (Oswalt et al. 2014). Annual removals of wood in the U.S. are less than half the annual increment. In other words, each year forests in the U.S. grow more than twice as much wood as is harvested. The annual harvest amounts to about 1.3% of total growing stock volume. Despite, and largely because of, ongoing removals that are only a portion of the forest’s annual growth, forests in the United States are increasing in extent. Also, the volume of trees contained within U.S forests is rising steadily. Today the U.S. has more forested land than in the early 1900s. Moreover, net growth has exceeded removals for at least 6 (and likely 7-­‐8) consecutive decades.7 The result is the volume of wood stored in the nation’s forests has increased substantially over that period. Source

Noone is going to virgin forests to send logs straight to a paper mill unless they are too small for the saw mills (byproducts of clear cut logging). The logs are far more valuable as lumber. But the byproducts are chiped and sent to paper mills so nothing is wasted. Your source is completely missing that point and not directing the enegry to the real culprit. Logging in virgin forests is no doubt a problem, but noone is logging them exclusively for paper.