Kentucky’s forests cover nearly half the Commonwealth, but only scattered information had existed on the overall economic impact of Kentucky’s forest and wood industry. To address this shortfall, a team of faculty and staff from the University of Kentucky Departments of Forestry and Agricultural Economics (Drs. Jeff Stringer, Alison Davis, and Terrell Baker along with staff members Bobby Ammerman and Billy Thomas) worked closely to compile data from a wide variety of sources for the Kentucky forest and wood industry. In 2013 this data was summarized and analyzed to assemble a comprehensive report on the Kentucky forest and wood industry. The subsequent extension publications (FORFS 13-03 and FORFS 13-04) that were developed as a result of this project revealed the forest and wood industry in Kentucky is a significant contributor to the Commonwealth’s economy. Chad Niman joined the analysis team in 2015, and Dr. Thomas Ochuodho in 2016.

In 2024 the publication was updated to include the current reporting year – 2022 - 2023 (FORFS 24-01).  The publication showed an economic impact of the Kentucky Forestry Sector to be $13.6 billion in 2021 in direct economic impact and nearly $18.6 billion in indirect and induced and provided a total of 49,109 jobs. In addition, a full release of the report was provided during the 2022 Kentucky Forest Industry Association Annual Meeting and Kentucky Woodland Owners Association in the spring of 2023.

The information provided through the publication and supporting programs provides farmers and woodland owners information to aid in their decision making.

Audience is largely wood industry employees, farmers, woodland owners, and general public.

Partners: Kentucky Division of Forestry and Kentucky Forest Industries Association.

Forests contribute $18.6 billion annually to Kentucky's economy and provide the most important ingredient in the $9 billion Bourbon industry.

https://forestry.ca.uky.edu/economic-report