At the moment we are importing wood because the US mills intentionally throttled output to keep lumber prices high over the winter. Nothing will ever come of it but the price fixing and collusion in the milling sector is blatantly obvious. And since the regulatory and capital burden of starting a lumber mill are intentionally made to be astronomical, there is no semblance of a free market to help fill in when demand is high. We lost a fatal portion of our milling infrastructure after NEPA and the 2005-8 recession and it will never recover. Each woodbasket is a mini-monopoly, usually closely connected to the relevant state agency, and there is no interest in upping supply. Additionally, much of the forest that is burning right now is doing so because it is overstocked, decadent, diseased, and has a large component of standing dead material due to the federal decision to functionally cease active forest management. Even if we cut those trees, huge swaths of federal timber ground are past the point of being merchantable, sometimes even for pulp. And finally, just like with agriculture, our finest quality timber is shipped to east asian markets and the domestic market uses lower-grade products. Our best is stripped from us and we are left with remnants. Our private forests are managed by global investment firms with the aim of maximizing revenue, not focusing on forest health or producing quality American products.