March 2017
Caddo River Forest Products Mill to reopen Glenwood mill AFA Glenwood, Arkansas is happy to welcome Caddo River Forest Products (CRFP) to the city. CRFP will be reopening the former Bean Lumber Company sawmill. CRFP plans to produce 50 million board feet of Southern yellow pine lumber in 2017 and increase to 100 million board feet in 2018, with plans for continued growth. “Caddo River Forest Products is thankful for all of the support received from CAT Financial, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, the City of Glenwood, Pike County, the State of Arkansas and the U.S. Economic Development Administration program,” said David Henderson, a member of the Caddo River partnership. “We are pleased to bring back important jobs to the area.” According to CRFP, in its first year of operation, the Glenwood sawmill will hire 80-90 full-time employees and will create 300 indirect jobs.
AFA attended the Caddo River Forest Products Community Update that was held on Thursday, March 16 in Glenwood at the CRFP facility. Brett Bray, pictured above, is CRFP’s general manager. The mill plans to open on May 15.
“In our ten management/supervisor positions in the mill, we have over 330 years of experience, said Brett Bray, CRFP General Manager.“ We have been successful in attracting “veterans” of the industry, we even have brought a couple out of retirement.”
How could the Timber Innovation Act impact you? AFA The Timber Innovation Act was reintroduced to Congress on March 7 by a group of bi-partisan congressmen, including U.S. Representative Bruce Westerman from Arkansas. This legislation works to find new and innovative ways for wood to be used as a building material. The Timber Innovation Act will increase research and development of wood for use in construction, primarily focusing on the construction of buildings that exceed 85 feet in height. The Arkansas Forestry Association was one of over 100 organizations in support of the
Timber Innovation Act’s reintroduction. Mass timber is a type of framing style using large panelized solid wood construction. Materials that could be used include crosslaminated timber, nail laminated timber or glue laminated timber panels for floor and wall framing. Mass timber products are said to be cost-competitive, carbon efficient, sustainable and reliable.
timber panels and wood based building systems creates new possibilities for wood construction,” Adrian Blocker, Weyerhaeuser senior vice president of wood products, said.
“There is enormous potential for mass timber and the Timber Innovation Act takes an important step forward to advance this new technology. While wood is one of the oldest building materials around, new technology utilizing engineered mass
Please consider reaching out to your representatives on behalf of the forest products industry, encouraging them to support this bill.
You can find more information on the Timber Innovation Act at http://www. timberinnovation.org/.