1

What is this indicator and 

why is it important?

Nonwood forest products (NWFPs) are harvested from 

forests and don’t require cutting or removal of trees for 

timber. These products are a subset of nontimber forest 

products (NTFPs), which include wood that is not timberbased. People have been collecting these forest products—

plant materials for food, fiber, and medicine, and other 

uses—for personal and commercial gain for generations. 

As the forest products industry developed, industries 

based on wood and nonwood forest products developed 

in parallel. The sale of these products contributes to local, 

regional, and national economies, though these products 

are overlooked in the valuation of our forests. Often, 

the NWFP industry comprises small-scale, locally based 

entrepreneurs, yet some large international corporations 

also depend on these products (Chamberlain et al. 2018a). 

Assigning dollar values to these products helps illustrate 

their importance to our Nation’s economy and the people 

who depend on them for livelihood.

What does the indicator 

show?

Data regarding domestic production and prices of NWFPs 

and NTFPs are not collected regularly. The U.S. Department 

of Agriculture, Forest Service and U.S. Department of the 

Interior (DOI), Bureau of Land Management (BLM) collect 

data on permitted harvests on national forests and BLM 

lands, which serve as a point of reference for estimating 

total value of harvested products. Little monitoring 

of harvests is undertaken, so permit data from these 

agencies provide coarse estimates as they may not reflect 

the actual amounts harvested on Federal lands. Also, 

permit data do not include the volume or value of NWFPs 

harvested from private or State lands. 

Federal forest land management agencies primarily 

generate receipts from two categories of products: those 

that are convertible to units of measure relative to timber 

and those that are not convertible. Convertible products 

include timber and other products that can be presented 

in units of measure that are comparable to timber. The 

units of measure for nonconvertible products, such as 

edible fruits, sap, grasses, and other plant material, are not 

directly comparable to timber products. Nontimber forest 

products include convertible and nonconvertible products, 

while NWFPs include only a subset of nonconvertible 

products. The Forest Service categorizes nonconvertible 

products as: nursery and landscape; arts, crafts, and floral; 

regeneration and silviculture; edible fruits, nuts, berries, 

and sap; grass, hay, alfalfa, and forages; and herbs and 

medicinals. These categories are consistent with the 

definition of NWFPs used by the Food and Agriculture 

Organization of the United Nations. Aside from these 

NWFPs, NTFPs include other nonconvertible products not 

specifically classified and all convertible categories (i.e., 

posts and poles; Christmas trees; and fuelwood). 

Estimated value of harvested products may be low 

because harvest is not limited to Federal lands and 

harvesting on private lands is not monitored nor included 

Indicator 6.26

Value of nonwood forest products produced 

or collected, 2018

James Chamberlain

January 2024 | FS-1217-Indicator-6.26
2

in value estimates. For example, using State data provided 

to the DOI U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Chamberlain et al. 

(2013) estimated the annual value at the first point of sale 

of wild-harvested American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) 

to range from $18 million to $36 million, depending on 

price (all monetary values are provided in constant 2019 

U.S. dollars). The average annual value of wild-harvested 

American ginseng paid to harvesters during 2000–2007 

was approximately $27 million (Chamberlain et al. 2013, 

2018b). In 2007, the estimated first-point-of-sale value of 

all herbs and medicinal plants harvested, as reported by 

the Forest Service and BLM, was approximately $1.3 million 

(table 26-1). Clearly, the entire value of wild-harvested 

American ginseng is not included in these estimates.

Over the period 2004–2018, the total value of receipts 

for permits to harvest NWFPs from Forest Service and 

BLM lands exceeded $33.7 million dollars (table 26-2). On 

average, annual receipts for permits to harvest NWFPs 

exceeded $2.2 million of the 15-year period. Permits issued 

for arts, crafts, and floral products accounted for more 

than 50 percent of total NWFP value, while forest food (i.e., 

edible fruits, nuts, berries, and sap) accounted for about 

25 percent of the total NWFP value. Notably, medicinal 

forest products (i.e., herbs and medicinals) accounted 

for just 1 percent of the total value, despite the value of 

American ginseng and other medicinal forest products. 

This discrepancy is likely due to the predominance of 

private landownership in regions where medicinal forest 

products are harvested.

With the inclusion of posts and poles, Christmas trees, 

fuelwood, and other nonconvertibles considered NTFPs, 

total receipts exceeded $126.4 million over the 15-year 

period. The Forest Service and BLM received an average 

of more than $8.4 million annually from permits issued to 

harvest all NTFPs. 

Figure 26-1 illustrates the trends in receipts for the harvest 

of NWFPs and NTFPs for 2004–2018. Receipts from permits 

to harvest arts, crafts, and floral products declined over 

the 15 years and experienced tremendous changes 

between years. There was a major spike in receipts for 

these types of products from 2005 to 2007, followed by 

drastic decline. Receipts increased from 2009 to 2013 and 

declined through the rest of the period. Receipts for edible 

products had similar volatility. Relative to other product 

categories, receipt trends for herbs and medicinals were 

steady, albeit with some high variants evident between 

2012 and 2014. 

For the 15-year period ending in 2018, the total estimated 

overall first-point-of-sale value for NWFPs, based on 

permits from the Forest Service and BLM, was $1.53 billion 

(table 26-1). With the addition of NTFPs, the value more 

Table 26-1—Estimated first-point-of sale values for nonwood and nontimber forest products for the United States, 2004–2018, based on harvest records 

from Forest Service and BLM lands.

Table 26-2—Receipts from issuance of permits to harvest nonwood and nontimber forest products from Forest Service and BLM lands, 2004–2018. 

Product category

thousands of 2019 U.S. dollars

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Total

Nursery and landscape 281.14 248.74 247.13 240.44 194.91 44.95 92.10 79.24 64.28 67.12 124.71 540.32 316.63 126.48 189.00 2,857.20

Arts, crafts, and floral 1,194.13 996.49 1,933.76 2,254.30 898.59 860.23 1,276.74 1,255.43 1,241.01 1,669.70 925.43 774.86 922.21 731.84 618.54 17,553.26

Regeneration and silviculture 28.81 52.20 40.47 26.92 87.72 105.69 43.79 90.12 57.24 118.90 154.53 87.41 131.16 124.20 116.88 1,266.06

Edible fruits, nuts, berries, and sap 688.07 359.20 456.20 468.87 806.68 434.85 685.48 537.75 597.51 743.31 452.93 541.07 489.23 430.53 457.69 8,149.39

Grass, hay, alfalfa, and forages 281.17 362.65 316.76 296.05 239.05 73.95 241.64 203.71 214.51 260.24 253.33 233.09 213.93 115.32 113.80 3,419.20

Herbs and medicinals 24.18 18.75 18.13 29.33 58.36 29.41 41.46 48.67 50.20 40.75 19.79 20.36 20.36 17.30 18.92 455.98

Total nonwood 2,497.50 2,038.04 3,012.45 3,315.91 2,285.32 1,549.09 2,381.22 2,214.92 2,224.75 2,900.02 1,930.72 2,197.11 2,093.53 1,545.67 1,514.83 33,701.08

Posts and poles 476.66 331.10 364.06 293.56 233.55 222.72 203.92 202.41 275.48 226.21 246.09 331.77 445.52 251.26 209.93 4,314.23

Christmas trees 1,811.69 1,897.01 353.15 1,471.65 1,292.24 411.65 1,663.06 1,224.91 1,192.39 1,153.83 1,123.48 1,247.53 1,361.53 1,379.81 1,570.98 19,154.90

Fuelwood 3,775.44 3,583.79 4,045.70 4,246.09 4,826.21 5,439.69 5,508.93 5,420.16 4,980.58 5,036.74 4,673.93 4,649.62 4,388.12 3,874.36 3,590.42 68,039.79

Total wood-based nontimber 6,063.79 5,811.89 4,762.92 6,011.29 6,352.01 6,074.05 7,375.91 6,847.48 6,448.45 6,416.78 6,043.50 6,228.93 6,195.17 5,505.42 5,371.32 91,508.92

Other nonconvertibles 114.81 235.37 298.66 174.12 70.80 25.66 45.18 77.17 7.62 8.18 64.30 29.43 11.65 49.55 51.77 1,264.26

Total nontimber 8,676.10 8,085.31 8,074.03 9,501.32 8,708.12 7,648.80 9,802.30 9,139.57 8,680.82 9,324.99 8,038.52 8,455.46 8,300.35 7,100.65 6,937.92 126,474.27

Product category

millions of 2019 U.S. dollars

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Total

Nursery and landscape 12.78 11.31 11.23 10.93 8.86 2.04 4.19 3.60 2.92 3.05 5.67 24.56 14.39 5.75 8.59 129.87

Arts, crafts, and floral 54.28 45.30 87.90 102.47 40.85 39.10 58.03 57.06 56.41 75.90 42.06 35.22 41.92 33.27 28.12 797.88

Regeneration and silviculture 1.31 2.37 1.84 1.22 3.99 4.80 1.99 4.10 2.60 5.40 7.02 3.97 5.96 5.65 5.31 57.55

Edible fruits, nuts, berries, and sap 31.28 16.33 20.74 21.31 36.67 19.77 31.16 24.44 27.16 33.79 20.59 24.59 22.24 19.57 20.80 370.43

Grass, hay, alfalfa, and forages 12.78 16.48 14.40 13.46 10.87 3.36 10.98 9.26 9.75 11.83 11.52 10.59 9.72 5.24 5.17 155.42

Herbs and medicinals 1.10 0.85 0.82 1.33 2.65 1.34 1.88 2.21 2.28 1.85 0.90 0.93 0.93 0.79 0.86 20.73

Total nonwood 113.52 92.64 136.93 150.72 103.88 70.41 108.24 100.68 101.13 131.82 87.76 99.87 95.16 70.26 68.86 1,531.87

Posts and poles 21.67 15.05 16.55 13.34 10.62 10.12 9.27 9.20 12.52 10.28 11.19 15.08 20.25 11.42 9.54 196.10

Christmas trees 82.35 86.23 16.05 66.89 58.74 18.71 75.59 55.68 54.20 52.45 51.07 56.71 61.89 62.72 71.41 870.68

Fuelwood 171.61 162.90 183.90 193.00 219.37 247.26 250.41 246.37 226.39 228.94 212.45 211.35 199.46 176.11 163.20 3,092.72

Total wood-based nontimber 275.63 264.18 216.50 273.24 288.73 276.09 335.27 311.25 293.11 291.67 274.70 283.13 281.60 250.25 244.15 4,159.50

Other nonconvertibles 5.22 10.70 13.58 7.91 3.22 1.17 2.05 3.51 0.35 0.37 2.92 1.34 0.53 2.25 2.35 57.47

Total nontimber 394.37 367.51 367.00 431.88 395.82 347.67 445.56 415.44 394.58 423.86 365.39 384.34 377.29 322.76 315.36 5,748.83

Sources: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service National Forest System and U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
3

than triples to $5.75 billion. These estimates are based on 

the assumptions that receipts are 10 percent of firstpoint-of-sale value and that Forest Service and BLM 

receipts represent approximately 20–30 percent and 2–15 

percent of supply, respectively (Alexander et al. 2011). 

Products deemed NWFPs accounted for about 27 percent 

of the total, while fuelwood was about 54 percent of total. 

Products considered arts, crafts, and florals were about 14 

percent of total value. 

With the additional assumption that first point of sale is 40 

percent of wholesale value, the estimated wholesale value 

of NWFPs for 2004 through 2018 is $3.83 billion (table 

26-3). The average annual wholesale value for NWFPs 

during this period is estimated at $255.31 million. With the 

inclusion of NTFPs, the total estimated wholesale value 

over the 15 years was more than $14 billion. In 2010, the 

estimated wholesale value was $1.11 billion; it has declined 

since to approximately $788.4 million in 2018. The average 

annual estimated wholesale value of NWFPs and NTFPs for 

the 15-year period was approximately $958.14 million. 

What has changed since 

2015? 

Table 26-4 illustrates changes in estimated wholesales 

values over three 5-year reporting cycles. Overall, there 

has been an estimated 29-percent decline in wholesale 

value of NWFPs from the United States from 2004 through 

2018. From the first cycle (2004–2008) to the second 

(2009–2013), there was about a 14-percent decrease; from 

the second to the third (2014–2018), there was another 

18-percent decrease. 

Over the three reporting periods, all product categories 

except for regeneration and silviculture realized a decline 

in value. Based on permit receipts, arts, crafts, and floral 

products realized the largest decline of about 45 percent. 

Products classified as nursery and landscape saw a 

70-percent decrease from the first cycle (2004–2008) 

to the second (2009–2013), an almost 270-percent 

increase from the second cycle to the third (2014–2018), 

and an overall 7-percent increase. Notably, the estimated 

wholesale value of herbs and medicinals declined about 

35 percent over the three reporting periods. Across all 

reporting cycles, the wholesale value of NTFPs declined 

about 10 percent.

Table 26-3—Estimated wholesale values of nonwood and nontimber forest products from the United States, 2004–2018.

Table 26-4—Estimated average total and average annual wholesale values of 

nonwood and nontimber forest products over three 5-year reporting cycles.

Figure 26-1—Value of receipts from Forest Service and Bureau of Land 

Management harvest permits for nontimber and nonwood forest products 

by year.

Product category

millions of 2019 U.S. dollars

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Total

Nursery and landscape 31.95 28.27 28.08 27.32 22.15 5.11 10.47 9.00 7.30 7.63 14.17 61.40 35.98 14.37 21.48 324.68

Arts, crafts, and floral 135.70 113.24 219.75 256.17 102.11 97.75 145.08 142.66 141.02 189.74 105.16 88.05 104.80 83.16 70.29 1,994.69

Regeneration and silviculture 3.27 5.93 4.60 3.06 9.97 12.01 4.98 10.24 6.50 13.51 17.56 9.93 14.90 14.11 13.28 143.87

Edible fruits, nuts, berries, and sap 78.19 40.82 51.84 53.28 91.67 49.42 77.90 61.11 67.90 84.47 51.47 61.49 55.59 48.92 52.01 926.07

Grass, hay, alfalfa, and forages 31.95 41.21 36.00 33.64 27.16 8.40 27.46 23.15 24.38 29.57 28.79 26.49 24.31 13.10 12.93 388.55

Herbs and medicinals 2.75 2.13 2.06 3.33 6.63 3.34 4.71 5.53 5.71 4.63 2.25 2.31 2.31 1.97 2.15 51.82

Total nonwood 283.81 231.60 342.32 376.81 259.69 176.03 270.59 251.70 252.81 329.55 219.40 249.67 237.90 175.64 172.14 3,829.67

Posts and poles 54.17 37.63 41.37 33.36 26.54 25.31 23.17 23.00 31.30 25.71 27.96 37.70 50.63 28.55 23.86 490.25

Christmas trees 205.87 215.57 40.13 167.23 146.85 46.78 188.98 139.19 135.50 131.12 127.67 141.76 154.72 156.80 178.52 2,176.69

Fuelwood 429.03 407.25 459.74 482.51 548.43 618.15 626.01 615.93 565.98 572.36 531.13 528.37 498.65 440.27 408.00 7,731.79

Total wood-based nontimber 689.07 660.44 541.24 683.10 721.82 690.23 838.17 778.12 732.78 729.18 686.76 707.83 704.00 625.62 610.38 10,398.74

Other nonconvertibles 13.05 26.75 33.94 19.79 8.05 2.92 5.13 8.77 0.87 0.93 7.31 3.34 1.32 5.63 5.88 143.67

Total nontimber 985.92 918.78 917.50 1,079.70 989.56 869.18 1,113.90 1,038.59 986.46 1,059.66 913.47 960.85 943.22 806.89 788.40 14,372.08

Product category

Estimated average totals Estimated average annual

millions of 2019 U.S. dollars

2004–2008 2009–2013 2014–2018 2004–2008 2009–2013 2014–2018

Nursery and landscape 137.77 39.51 147.40 27.55 7.90 29.48

Arts, crafts, and floral 826.96 716.26 451.46 165.39 143.25 90.29

Regeneration and 

silviculture

26.83 47.24 69.79 5.37 9.45 13.96

Edible fruits, nuts, 

berries, and sap

315.80 340.78 269.48 63.16 68.16 53.90

Grass, hay, alfalfa, and 

forages

169.96 112.96 105.62 33.99 22.59 21.12

Herbs and medicinals 16.90 23.92 10.99 3.38 4.78 2.20

Total nonwood 1,494.23 1,280.68 1,054.76 298.85 256.14 210.95

Posts and poles 193.06 128.49 168.70 38.61 25.70 33.74

Christmas trees 775.65 641.57 759.47 155.13 128.31 151.89

Fuelwood 2,326.96 2,998.42 2,406.42 465.39 599.68 481.28

Total wood-based 

nontimber

3,295.67 3,768.49 3,334.58 659.13 753.70 666.92

Other nonconvertibles 101.56 18.61 23.49 20.31 3.72 4.70

Total nontimber 4,891.46 5,067.78 4,412.83 978.29 1,013.56 882.57
4

Figure 26-2 illustrates the trends in estimated average 

annual wholesale values. Average annual NTFP wholesale 

value increased from the first period (2004–2008) to the 

second (2009–2013) but subsequently declined in the 

third. The trend in estimated average annual wholesale 

value of NWFPs has been a steady decline over the 15-year 

period.

Are there important 

regional differences? 

Examination of the value of nonconvertible relative to 

convertible products illustrates regional differences. 

Over the period 2009 through 2018, and across all Forest 

Service regions, on average, nonconvertible products 

accounted for about 4 percent of receipts. In the 

Southwestern Region (Region 3; Arizona, New Mexico), 

nonconvertibles averaged about 13 percent of receipts, 

while nonconvertibles from the Alaska Region (Region 10) 

averaged about 0.04 percent of receipts. Nonconvertibles 

accounted for about 6.5 percent of the receipts for 

national forests in the Pacific Southwest Region (Region 

5; California) and about 7 percent of receipts in the 

Intermountain Region (Region 4). These differences may 

be due to low timber harvesting relative to harvesting of 

nonconvertible products. In Arizona and New Mexico, large 

amounts of firewood and pinyon nuts (from Pinus spp.) are 

harvested and recorded in units that are not convertible. 

In addition, the distribution of Federal lands may affect 

the regional reporting of NWFPs, since data reported are 

specific to permits on Federal lands and Federal ownership 

is concentrated in the West. The discrepancy noted 

above between the estimated value of American ginseng 

harvests and the much lower value of reported permits 

for medicinal plants likely reflects the fact that American 

ginseng is harvested in the East where public forest land 

ownership is significantly less.

Why can’t the entire 

indicator be reported at this 

time? 

The main reason that the indicator cannot be fully reported 

is that reporting of harvest data comes primarily from 

Federal agencies, but harvesting is not limited to Federal 

lands. There is no way to estimate the amount of NWFPs 

harvested from private lands nor personal-use harvest 

levels. The institutional framework does not exist to collect 

data on the full spectrum of NWFPs harvested from all 

lands (Chamberlain et al. 2018b). Further, the assumption 

by which these estimates are made must be scrutinized 

and modified accordingly.

References

Alexander, S.J.; Oswalt, S.N.; Emery, M.R. 2011. Nontimber 

forest products in the United States: Montreal Process 

indicators as measures of current conditions and 

sustainability. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW- 851. Portland, 

OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 

Pacific Northwest Research Station. 36 p. https://doi.

org/10.2737/PNW-GTR-851. 

Chamberlain, J.L.; Emery, M.R.; Patel-Weynand, T., eds. 

2018a. Assessment of nontimber forest products in the 

United States under changing conditions. Gen. Tech. Rep. 

SRS-232. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, 

Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 260 p. https://

doi.org/10.2737/SRS-GTR-232. 

Chamberlain, J.L.; Prisley, S.; McGuffin, M. 2013. 

Understanding the relationships between American 

ginseng harvest and hardwood forests inventory and 

timber harvest to improve co-management of the forests 

of eastern United States. Journal of Sustainable Forestry. 

32.6: 605–624. https://doi.org/10.1080/10549811.2013.79

8828. 

Chamberlain, J.; Teets, A.; Kruger, S. 2018b. Nontimber 

forest products in the United States: an analysis for the 

2015 National Sustainability Report. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS229. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest 

Service, Southern Research Station. 36 p. https://doi.

org/10.2737/SRS-GTR-229. 

Figure 26-2—Estimated average annual wholesale value of nonwood and 

nontimber forest products by 5-year reporting cycles.
5

U.S. Forest Sustainability Indicators:

 https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/inventory/sustainability

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USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.

Chamberlain, James. 2024. Indicator 6.26: value of nonwood forest 

products produced or collected, 2018. FS-1217-Indicator-6.26. Washington, 

DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Washington Office. 5 p. 

https://doi.org/10.2737/FS-1217-Indicator-6.26.