The forestry industry supported nearly 4,000 jobs and $290 million in income in East Baton Rouge Parish in 2015, with the related economic output surpassing $1.5 billion.
That’s according to a new breakdown of the industry’s economic impact in each of Louisiana’s 64 parishes from the LSU AgCenter.
Forestry is the state’s top-grossing agricultural commodity, with the sector accounting for an annual economic output of approximately $13 billion. LSU AgCenter assistant professor of forest economics Shaun Tanger recently compiled the parish economic profiles.
“We wanted to put this out because it gives us a more complete picture of what forestry means to each parish,” Tanger says.
The profiles provide a snapshot of how the forest products industry contributes to each parish economy through jobs, wages and purchases in the local economy as well as local, state and federal taxes.
Indirect purchases, or those that the forestry sector makes from other industries, and induced purchases—such as the spending by employees from the sector on goods and services in the community—were also factored into the total contribution.
The forestry industry contributed nearly $1 billion in local, state and federal taxes in 2015 (as calculated in 2017 dollars), and employs more than 50,000 people in Louisiana.
In East Baton Rouge Parish, the industry contributed more than $73.6 million in federal taxes and $30.8 million in state taxes. See all the parish profiles.
