will hemp destroy the forest if there is no more market for sustainably harvested wood?

will hemp destroy the forest if there is no more market for sustainably harvested wood? forest conservation work sometimes involves logging and a market for the trees to generate the profit to pay off loans and to buy more land. if there is no more market for wood because of hemp will the small woodland owners clear their forests to grow the hemp? i read about wineries clear cutting forest for new vineyard expansion.

Wesley Johnson : I have heard of several schemes to use hemp as a replacement for the raw material in paper making, and flooring and many other things too.

So there is a potential that if and when hemp could be legally grown that former timberland might be turned into land for growing crops, but not until the fallow
and the abandoned land is placed into production ! This will create a breathing space, also much of the land in timber is not suited for other crops !

So - The Very 1st thing anyone with Raw timberland needs is a survey of the type of trees on that property. This is Timber Cruising and is done by a professional
Timber Cruiser. Your local or state Water and Soil District will be able to help you find one, or perhaps a surveyer who normally finds the boundaries on your
property will know where to find one !

With a map showing the types of timber standing on your property you can come up with a 20 year plan to improve your tree stands and immediately generate
fire wood for sale or personal use. some materials can be used to improve wild life habitat ,or make hugel beds !

After that you can see if the standing timber is mature enough for harvest for building, construction or Furniture making, with good management and luck a
necessary 30% -40% of indigenous trees can be left in place and replaced as needed by volunteer saplings. Wether your existing trees are a good match for
the local timber market is initially a crap shoot, after the sick and dying trees are removed, and the deadwood dealt with, you may have with hard work developed
most of the skills to match your timberland to your needs and Your local market.

The Permaculture way tends to rely on having several years to plan out your lands future !

I hope that I have answered some of the thoughts behind your stated question, and given you something to think about !

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For the Good of the Crafts Big AL

If it was economically advantageous in the short term, most companies would not hesitate to clear cut any property they own or control, in order to plant hemp. Weyerhauser, in Arkansas and Oklahoma, clear cut the old growth hardwood forest on their vast leased lands in order to plant fast-growing softwoods for pulp production. It was an incredibly stupid and ignorant thing to do, but it made perfect sense to them at the time.

I honestly doubt that hemp or bamboo or sugar cane rind or compressed straw will ever replace the demand for wood. Those alternatives are only viable when wood products are scarce and/or too expensive, as they are now in many markets. If, however, government policy were to intervene in the market in any way, as it has with biomass and biofuels, you could see similar negative impacts on forests worldwide.

The world has massive amounts of low grade trees which are allowed to rot or burn. I can't see hemp replacing the raw stock for sheeting products, with so much wood lying around.

In places where there are no legal restrictions, hemp finds a place as a course fibre. India, China, Russia and others use it as a textile. It hasn't replaced wood or cotton.

Many products that could be made from hemp, require glue. Most glues are petroleum based. A well managed wood lot, produces excellent building materials that can be processed by the individual land owner. Nothing has to be shipped away to a factory. No petrochemicals are necessary.

History shows that the highest demand for hemp fibers to date was world war two, the places that grew the stuff were converted crop fields, not woodlands.
In the future, if hemp should become acceptable to those elected to serve us in Washington DC, you would most likely see fields currently used for crops such as corn, wheat, soybeans, barley, rye, and all other grains be converted to hemp fields.
Farmers are more about profitability and so grow the crops they think will bring in the most dollars per harvest. That is not likely to change in the near future.
Given that many woodlands are under contract to remain as they are today, under USDA programs that pay farmers to leave those woods alone, most likely they would continue to keep them as they are.