Hard maple, growing naturally in the hardwood forests of North America, is world-renowned for its delicate colour, hardness, fine grain and finishing quality. American hard maple is a cold climate species although trees can grow throughout the USA. Forest Industry Analysis (FIA) data shows U.S. hard maple makes up 7.0% of total U.S. hardwood growing stock and that while 9.1 million m³ are harvested each year, more than 18 million m3 of American maple grows naturally across the U.S. hardwood forests each year.  The sapwood of hard maple is normally creamy white and the heartwood varies from light to dark reddish brown.  The wood has a close fine texture and is generally straight grained but can occur as ‘curly’, ‘fiddleback’ and ‘birds eye’ figure.