How do you produce wood products?

Timber and wood products come from a living, growing, self-sustaining resource – it is hard to imagine life without them? Consider the many products used by society that come from parts of trees harvested from commercial forests, including:

• Wood  for telegraph and power transmission poles, wharf and bridge timbers, railway sleepers, posts for building and agriculture, timber in housing (roof trusses, flooring, frames), outdoor furniture and decking, boat-building and fit-out timbers, veneers and solid timber for fine furniture, cabinet making and plywood, and craft wood. Offcuts and waste are used for firewood, pulpwood for paper, sawdust for garden mulch or as heating fuel. Wood waste is increasingly being used in engineered wood products such as wood plastic composites.
   
• Leaves - floristry, essential oils, extracts used for medicinal, cosmetic and industrial purposes.
   
• Flowers, fruit - a source of pollen and nectar for honey-producing bees, edible foods, seeds and floral decorations.
   
• Large branches and bole wood not suitable for milling – woodchips for pulping or compacted heating fuel pellets, craft wood, firewood, char for silicon manufacture, and essential oils. Cellulose for paper, rayon, cellophane, photographic film, biofuel and cardboard. Lignin for fertilisers, plastics, ceramics and tanning.
   
• Bark - oil, dye, tannin, compost and medicines.
   
• Saps - used in paints, varnishes, soaps, oils, waxes, explosives, printing inks, disinfectants, perfumes, chewing gum, glues and ointments.
   
• Tree parts can be distilled or treated to produce pine or eucalypt oil, resin, turpentine, charcoal and wood tar.