The same characteristics lend themselves to growing trees, but Hawai'i's timber industry has the reputation of a sapling — which is something farmers are trying to change.

Their task isn't easy. Developing a commercial industry that not only meets state needs but produces world exports could take decades, particularly when business and environmental interests collide over harvesting on state lands.

"If we can get the commercial concerns and the environmental concerns to work together to come up with proactive solutions, I think there's a lot of potential in Hawai'i's forest industry," said Bill Cowern, whose Hawaiian Mahog-any Inc. farm has leased 4,000 acres to grow eucalyptus and other trees.

The payoff could be significant. While current figures are not available, one 10-year-old industry estimate places forest industry sales at $29 million, with 1,000 jobs generated.

Industry experts predict a fully mature industry could be worth millions more, even through investments can take many years to bear fruit.

In the past six years, 25,000 acres have been planted at tree farms mainly on Kaua'i and the Big Island. Since 1995, 10 million seedlings have taken root, according to the Hawaii Forest Industry Association.

Raising awareness is one of the goals behind the association's 11th annual Hawai'i Woodshow, which runs tomorrow through Sept. 21 at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center.

The group also provides speakers free of charge to any group wanting to learn more about the industry and the jobs it creates in forests and workshops.

"It seems to me that we have a proportionately high number of woodworkers who have workshops attached to their homes or on their property," said Honolulu woodworker Marian Yasuda.

Several major developments on the Big Island in the past 10 years have helped boost the visibility of Hawai'i's timber industry:

• Prudential Timber Co. has leased about 25,000 acres of former Hamakua Sugar land from the Kamehameha Schools to plant eucalyptus. The trees should be ready around 2007 for harvesting and shipment to Japan, to be processed into eucalyptus wood veneer.

• Strother Timberlands of Troy, Ala., plans to plant timber on former sugarcane land in Puna.

• Tradewinds Forest Products plans to build a veneer and plywood manufacturing facility that would employ more than 500 workers on the Big Island, if it can find financing. The timber would be harvested from the state's Wai-akea Timber Management Area on the slopes of Mauna Kea.

The University of Hawai'i's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources is working on a study to quantify the industry's economic impact. Industry officials are predicting sizable gains since the estimates from a decade ago.

Prudential's investment alone could equal the value of the entire industry of 10 years ago, said Stephen Smith, president of the Hawaii Forest Industry Association.

"We want to get the word out that we can and will have a place in Hawai'i's economic future," said Smith — especially as trees planted in the last decade are harvested, beginning in three to five years.

Timber cutting at Waiakea generates about $30,000 a year for the state, said Carl Masaki, forestry program manager with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

If Tradewinds starts up, the state estimates its total annual timber income could reach $500,000 to $1 million a year.

Masaki said the goal is to generate not only money, but jobs. "We know that there are a lot of former sugarcane workers looking for jobs, and they don't all want to work in hotels," he said.

Harvesting timber in Hawai'i remains controversial. Business groups and state foresters support industry growth, while environmentalists and others cite concerns about traffic, insecticide, runoff and native bird habitats.

"I don't think we should be logging any native forest or ecosystem on public land at all," said Marjorie Ziegler, board member for the Conservation Council for Hawaii.

Nevertheless, Tai Lake, a Holualoa woodworker who manages a private koa forest in Kona, said sustainable harvesting of Hawai'i's forests is a reality; Lake takes koa from dead or fallen trees.

He believes the key is to give people a personal stake in Hawai'i forests.

"If you just lock (the trees) up or fence them up, people take them for granted," he said. "Once people start relying on the forest for their jobs, they take a whole different view of it."