FOREST PRODUCTS The annual wood consumption in the United States takes from our forests approximately 23 billion cubic feet of wood, allowing for the waste which occurs in logging and milling operations. In round numbers, we use yearly 100 million cords of firewood, 45 billion feet of lumber, nearly 15 billion shingles, over a billion posts, poles, and fence rails, 140 million cross-ties, over 2 billion staves, more than 150 million sets of heading, nearly 400 million barrel hoops, 3 million cords of domestic pulpwood, 165 million cubic feet of round mine timbers, over 1,200,000 cords of wood for distillation and more than 1,000,000 cords of tanbark.