FORESTRY

Forests cover a little less than a third of the United States, or about 298 million hectares.

About half of the nation’s lumber and all the fir plywood come from the forests of the Pacific states, an area dominated by softwoods. In addition to the Douglas fir forests in Washington and Oregon, this area includes the famous California redwoods and the Sitka spruce along the coast of Alaska. Commercially valuable hardwood trees, such as gum, ash, pecan, and oak, grow in the lowlands along the rivers of the South. The Appalachian Highland and parts of the Great Lakes area have excellent hardwood forests. Hickory, maple, oak, and other hardwoods removed from these forests provide fine woods for the manufacture of furniture and other products.

FISHING

The United States is usually sixth among the nations of the world in weight of total catch, ranking behind China, Japan, Peru, Chile, and Russia. In addition to commercial fishing, sport fishing is popular in many states.

The most valuable species caught are crabs, salmon, and shrimp, each representing about one-sixth of the total value. Other important species include lobsters, clams, flounders, scallops, Pacific cod, and oysters.

Alaska leads all states in both the volume and value of the catch; important species caught at Alaska ports include pollock and salmon. Important species caught in the New England region include lobsters, scallops, clams, oysters, and cod.

Much of the annual U.S. tonnage of commercial freshwater fish comes from farms. The most important species raised on farms are catfish, trout, salmon, oysters, and crawfish.

MINING

The United States ranks among world leaders in value of annual mineral production. Mining contributes 1.4 percent of annual GDP and employs 0.5 percent of the workers. Although mining accounts for a small share of the nation’s economic output, it has been essential to its industrial development. Coal and iron ore are the basis for the steel industry. Steel is fabricated into automobiles, appliances, machinery, and other basic products. Petroleum is refined into gasoline, heating oil, and petrochemicals used to make plastics, paint, pharmaceuticals, and synthetic fibers.

The nation’s three chief mineral products are fuels. In order of value, they are natural gas, petroleum, and coal. In the early 1990s the United States produced 25 percent of the world’s natural gas, 19 percent of its coal, and 11 percent of its crude oil. Three-fifths of the nation’s most valuable mineral, natural gas, is produced in Texas and Louisiana. Other important natural-gas-producing states are Oklahoma, New Mexico, Wyoming, Kansas, Alabama, California, and Alaska. Petroleum accounted for nearly one-third of U.S. fuel production and about one-quarter of the annual value of all minerals produced in the United States. Texas, Alaska, and California, the three leading oil producers, together yield more than one-half of the nation’s petroleum. Other leading oil-producing states are Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Wyoming.

Coal, the third leading mineral, accounts for approximately one-sixth of the yearly value of all U.S. mining output. Much of the nation’s coal is produced in mines in the Appalachians. Wyoming, West Virginia, and Kentucky, which together produce more than one-half of the annual U.S. output, are the leading coal-mining states, followed by Pennsylvania, Illinois, Montana, Virginia, Indiana, and Ohio.

Important metals mined in the United States include gold, copper, iron ore, zinc, magnesium, lead, and silver. Leading industrial minerals are materials used in construction, clays, lime, salt, phosphate rock, boron, and potassium salts.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 912