**Acknowledgements**

*Timber Buildings and Sustainability*

would be important in this case.

for South America.

from 171 million m3

in the Southern Cone.

excellent forestry opportunities.

While the logger demographics are disconcerting, there were high production levels in North Carolina as found by Hahn [2], and corroborated by the simulations of Roll [26] and others in the South. Roll determined that a relatively modest number of 30 employees and seven harvesting crews of four in-woods persons could harvest an additional 1 million tons of wood in the Coastal Plain of North Carolina. However, this is only an 8% increase based on 13 million tons of production in the state; large production increases could require many more workers quickly.

We conclude that an expansion of the number of logging crews—which can harvest from 150,000 to 200,00 tons of production per year—would most likely come from expansion and innovation from existing logging firms, not completely new entrants to the business, or from wood dealers who serve as middlemen in the procurement process in Eastern North Carolina. Thus an expansion of moderate amounts of timber harvesting production at the margin does not seem insurmountable, although several million tons or more of production would become increasingly harder to achieve by merely expanding current, often undercapitalized, logging firms. Innovation to achieve higher productivity

While not examined specifically, we believe it would be easier for logging companies in the Southern Cone to expand to achieve higher logging production to supply forest products manufacturing facilities. The logging production rates exceeding 300,000 tons per year were higher than in the U.S. South; the work is still perceived comparatively favorably by rural workers in the Southern Cone; and there are fewer rural manufacturing or service alternatives to timber extraction. Overall, these linked studies of timber harvesting/logging in the Southern Cone of South America and the U.S. South are very informative. While the timber harvesting productivity rates and costs were not far apart, the Southern Cone generally had a competitive advantage, with observably higher logging production rates and lower logging costs. Timber harvesting technology and innovation had matured considerably in the Southern Cone in the last two decades. The studies reviewed here suggest that average logging cut and haul rates were perhaps \$3–\$5 per ton cheaper in the Southern Cone, which multiplied by one quarter to a million tons per sawmill or pulp mill, adds up to a considerable cost advantage per mill, and

In addition, the timber plantation growth rates, final harvest yields, and investment returns for stumpage alone also are much better in South America than the U.S. South [10]. Cheaper fast grown timber plantation costs and timber harvesting production and cost advantages unite to provide substantial competitive advantages throughout the value chain to Southern Cone planation forestry. These countries of course have considerable challenges and more variable macroeconomic factors, political risk, poor roads and infrastructure, and other issues, which constrain their

However, if the underlying institutional fundamentals do align well, the Southern Cone can grow and harvest wood cheaply, and will continue to expand forest products mills and harvesting capacity more quickly as well. This trend is evidenced by the opening of many new pulp and paper mills in the Southern Cone over the last few decades, while a large number have closed in the U.S. South. The Southern Cone roundwood production increased about 25%

most forest manufacturing production capacity in the world, but has a decreasing total output share, which is likely to continue based on the timber harvesting costs examined here, as well as timber plantation production and cost advantages

in 2017 [5, 6], while that in the

[7]. The South still has the

in 2008 to 217 million m3

U.S. South was relatively flat at about 185 million m3

**130**

Partial funding for the research on was provided by the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station; by the NC State University Southern Forest Resource Assessment Consortium; and by the respective organizations of the co-authors. Karen Abt of the USDA Forest provided insightful review comments for the manuscript.
