In 2002, West Virginia had four-fifths, or 12.1 million acres (4.9 million hectares), of its land area in forestland and, of this, 11.9 million acres (4.8 million hectares) are classified as timberland.
In 1997, West Virginia's timber resource was the largest and of the highest quality of any time in the past 75 or more years, with 64% of its timberland being sawtimber size. Sawtimber volumes average 6,500 board feet per acre. About 92% of West Virginia forest species are hardwoods, with approximately 77% of the timberland being of the oak-hickory forest type. In all, West Virginia's forests contain more than 100 species of trees.
During the early 1900s, West Virginia became a lumbering giant. From 1908 to 1911, some 1,500 mills produced up to 1.5 billion board ft of lumber annually to feed the nation's needs. By 1920, the state was first in the production of cherry and chestnut lumber and 13th in total production. After the extensive logging and resulting debris came forest fires which devastated the remaining forest resource and caused extensive soil erosion. In the early 1930s, a cooperative fire prevention program was initiated in the state and later in the early 1950s, an educational and forestry technical assistance program was created to help forest landowners manage and protect their forests. The maturing forests of West Virginia languished in their contribution to the state's economy until the 1980s when annual production, which had averaged around 350 to 450 million board ft per year, began to increase significantly.
Production increased to 600 million board ft in 1988, and 724 million board ft by 2002. Employment in the forest industry is 2nd only to the chemical and primary metal manufacturing industries. However, it is estimated that growth still exceeded removals by a ratio of 1.34 to 1. Even more important, the net volume of all growing stock on timberland increased from 9.1 to 20.3 million cu ft between 1953 and 1997.
The state is encouraging the professional management of its forests so they will continue to produce a sustained array of benefits, such as wood products, jobs, clean water, oxygen, scenery, and diverse recreational opportunities like hunting, hiking, and tourism.