well, I live in the middle of the 'pine belt' where trees, just like soybeans, wheat, corn, etc, are grown as a CROP - from seedling to paper mill = 12 years.... the terrain is not conducive to "regular" crops - lots of hills and hollers, ridges and valleys, and pine trees make a great 'crop' - the trees go to the lumber yards or pulp mills.. the lumber yards are mostly closed now because of the housing crises - so trees are only going to the pulp mills, which have also gone down, the unemployment rate here is around 19%...
so go ahead and wad up those napkins - keep somebody in a job....
I guess one of my pet peeves is people automatically assuming that all paper products come from beautiful forests being decimated instead of a cash crop....
oh, and after clearcutting (which mostly is NOT done here) replanting is usually done within a month or so - so in another 12 years, there's another crop...