The Forest Resources Association, formerly known as the American Pulpwood Association, is a trade association representing buyers, sellers, and handlers of pulpwood, also known as wood fiber, as well as businesses offering products and services to the industry. Pulpwood is wood intended to be made into wood pulp, to produce paper and other pulp-based products. It may also be delivered in the form of wood chips, most commonly as a by-product in the manufacture of lumber at sawmills. Specifications vary by region and according to the particular needs of mills.
Pulp is processed cellulose, the principal structural material in plant cells.
The use of wood as a source of pulp dates only from the late 19th Century, when it replaced cotton rags as the dominant raw material for paper. Many tree species can be used for some kind of pulp, but most mills are dedicated to specific manufacturing processes and product lines that limit the species of wood they accept. It depends on whether you're buying it or selling it. Generally, pulpwood is cheaper than the sawtimber needed for lumber and plywood, either because pulpwood is a by-product of those products or because it comes from younger, smaller, or misshapen trees which represent less value and investment to the landowner. Depending on species, wood quality, and local product prices, different proportions of a tree's trunk and branches may be divided among solid wood products and pulpwood, with with bark, smaller branches, and rotted material going for fuel or mulch.