The share of USFS fire management obligations devoted to suppression averaged 57% from 2016-2025. This percentage will be 100% in FY2026 under the current budget proposal, but accounting for reallocation of the Fuels budget to the new "Wildland Fire Service" in the DOI, the share is more like 93%.

Wood chips can sometimes be a revenue stabilizer for sawmills when lumber prices decline. Y/Y inflation in sawmill wood chip prices averaged 2.8% from 2015-2024, while SW lumber price inflation averaged 5.1%. In 2025, chip prices grew 3.2% through September, but SW lumber prices fell 5.5%.

While still negative since 1991, the relationship is weaker for other sectors like computer/electronic products manufacturing. Sectors experiencing a major expansion (like electronics manufacturing in the mid-late 90s) can experience positive annual growth in both capital intensity and employment.

There is an intuitive inverse relationship between employment and capital intensity in U.S. sawmills, but the trend is stark. The most recent available BLS data on capital intensity show that it grew by 1.6% in 2022, coinciding with a -0.6% contraction in sawmill employment that year.

From 2022-2024, roundwood price inflation did not keep pace with the rising cost of logging equipment (tractors, dozers, log skidders, etc.). This trend has reversed in 2025. Year-over-year roundwood price inflation averaged 0.4% through September while logging equipment inflation averaged -3.9%.

Tech-driven economic growth has not yet pushed new housing activity below 4% of GDP. Fixed residential investment as a share of GDP is currently 4%, but it has fallen from an average of 4.8% in 2021. It sits between its pre-housing crisis share of 6.6% (2005) and its post-crisis low of 2.4% (2011).