JOIN NAWLA THIS SUMMER— LIVE AND IN PERSON

with wholesale and manufacturer professionals in the forest product and lumber industries. See the list of upcoming regional meetings below and register at nawla.org.

Vancouver Regional Meeting

Wednesday, May 10 Vancouver, B.C.

Southeast Regional Meeting

Wednesday, May 17 Birmingham, Al.

Portland Regional Meeting

Thursday, June 1 Portland, Or.

Minneapolis Regional Meeting

Thursday, Aug. 17 Dellwood, Mn.

Northeast Regional Meeting

In partnership with the 2023 NELMA Annual Meeting

Today, Wood Basics companies and employees have the chance to invest in the future. Whether it is a new employee just starting in the industry or a veteran who is moving into a new field, the course will provide the student and company with the resources to succeed.

Wood Basics is a four-day immersion class that includes both classroom training and field operations. The curriculum encompasses the entire spectrum of the forest products industry: from seed to tree, from production to sales.

Registration for Fall Wood Basics opens soon.

2023 Traders Market

SPRING WOOD BASICS returned this month, just in time for many of NAWLA’s regional and educational events to kick off. Be on the lookout for invitations from NAWLA on the upcoming events as you plan out your own 2023 calendar.

Regional Meetings

Connect locally with NAWLA as it tours across regions of United States and Canada each year for regional meetings. Each regional meeting provides opportunities for networking and education

Thursday, Sept. 20 Rockport, Me.

Fall Wood Basics

NAWLA Wood Basics Course started in 1981 to educate and develop a skilled workforce for the forest products industry. More than 1,500 professionals have graduated from the course since its inception, representing a broad cross section of the industry. Since that time, the curriculum has evolved with the industry in areas such as technology and global trade.

Since 1996, Traders Market has held a unique position among lumber and building material trade shows as the only one focused almost exclusively on the lumber supply chain. Unlike other shows, the exhibitors are almost always manufacturers of lumber and lumberrelated products, not machinery or other equipment providers.

Traders Market returns for 2023 in Columbus, Oh., with eight hours of trade show floor time to buy, sell and network, several hours of industry education and an all-star keynote. Registration opens in June so make plans to join NAWLA in Ohio this November! MM

– Find out more and register for upcoming events at nawla.org.

Capital Kicks Off Customer Events

Capital, Chino, Ca., enjoyed a hearty turnout for its first Boards, Brews & Screws event of the year—held March 9 at The Brews Hall in Torrance, Ca.

A mix of dealer associates, contractors and architects made it out to the event to learn about some of Capital’s key vendors and what they have to offer.

Vancouver Dealer Hands Out Crypto Bonuses

In search of innovative ways to retain entrylevel employees, Shur-Way Building Center, Vancouver, Wa., has been handing out bonuses in Bitcoin.

Bitcoin was the first and is considered the best known cryptocurrency.

Late last year, Shur-Way revamped its Christmas bonuses to be based on performance, and to be paid out the following April in Bitcoin. Similarsized crypto payments for each worker will deposited into a group fund in the second and third trimesters. The company will control the general fund until, in time, it disperses it to employees in escalating portions.

Seismic Testing Of Tallwood Building Sets Record

With new building codes recently updated to permit more high-rise mass-timber buildings to be constructed in the U.S., many have questioned how such buildings would fare in earthquakes.

The Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure TallWood project is investigating the resilience of tall timber buildings by simulating a series of large earthquakes on a full-scale, 10-story mass timber building this spring— the world’s tallest full-scale building ever tested on an earthquake simulator, or shake table. The research project is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.

“Mass timber is part of a massive trend in architecture and construction, but the seismic performance of tall buildings made with these new systems is not as well understood as other existing building systems,” said Shiling Pei, principal investigator and associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Colorado School of Mines.

Pei’s team, which includes both researchers and practitioners, designed a 10-story tall, mass-timber rocking wall lateral system suitable for regions susceptible to high earthquakes. This new system is aimed at resilient performance, which means the building will have minimal damage from design level earthquakes and be quickly repairable after rare earthquakes.

“The rocking wall system consists of a solid wood wall panel anchored to the ground using steel cables or rods with large tension forces in them,” Pei said. “When exposed to lateral forces, the wood wall panels will rock back and forth—which reduces earthquake impacts—and then the steel rods will pull the building back to plumb once the earthquake passes.”

Due to this seismic movement induced by the rocking system, resilience-critical nonstructural components within and covering the building, such as the exterior façade, interior walls and stairways, are in for a big ride.

“Resilient design must also account for the building’s nonstructural systems, which are not part of the structural load-resisting system, but play an important role in the building’s function and its ability to recover after the earthquake,” said Keri Ryan, a project co-investigator and engineering professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.

The project team focused on to allow occupants to safely exit and first responders to continually access all floors of the building.

“These assemblies have been designed with a variety of new and innovative details that are intended to accommodate the floor-to-floor movement without damage,” Ryan said. “Many of these details have never been tested in a rigorous building setting.” dom—longitudinal, lateral, vertical, roll, pitch and yaw.

The tests started in April at the University of California, San Diego outdoor shake table—one of the two biggest earthquake simulators in the world. Located at UCSD’s Englekirk Structural Engineering Center, the facility is part of the NSF’s Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure.

The combination of largest payload capacity in the world, an outdoor setting and the newly added six-degrees-of-freedom shaking capability make the UC San Diego shake table a powerful and unique facility—and the only one in the world where the Tallwood tests could happen.

Tests will simulate earthquake motions recorded during prior earthquakes covering a range of magnitudes, from 4 to 8, on the Richter scale. This will be done by accelerating the table to at least 1g, which could accelerate the top of the building to as much as 3gs. For reference, fighter pilots experience

cally reject such an offer. As a result, the buyers face ‘adverse selection’—the only sellers who will accept $750

play as the places where life’s best moments and memories can happen. We are encouraging designers, homeowners and other creators to explore greater possibilities for their spaces with Eldorado Stone as part of that transformation.”

“Smart buyers foresee this problem. Knowing they could be buying a lemon, they offer only $500. Sellers of the lemons end up with the same price they would have received were there no ambiguity. But the peaches all stay in the garage. “Information asymmetry” kills the market for good cars.”

Eldorado Refreshes Brand

Structural wood panel buyers rely upon qualified inspection and testing agencies like the APA to routinely test and certify the quality of the products they buy. This creates an incentive for individual panel producers to “push” the standard. A passage from Ackerloff’s famous paper: supplies of small-knot, dense, Douglas fir veneers). The “market for lemons” is likely having a major effect on the size of this market today.

HARD MAPLE is popular throughout the Glacial Region.

Overcoming the Market for Lemons

provider of e-catalog and configurator solutions, extending DMSi’s portfolio of industry-specific solutions that help dealers and distributors grow their businesses.

and fall seasons with cold winters, which allow that growth to be gradual—hardwoods from the Appalachian region feature tight growth rings, strong fibers, and consistent colors and grain textures. This leads to strength, durability and beauty in the lumber, in addition to excellent width and long length characteristics.

How can individual panel producers overcome this “lemons market” problem, their industry’s “race to the bottom,” and depressed industry sales levels? They can offer company-specific product performance guarantees.

A diamond icon has been the foundation of Eldorado Stone’s brand story since its beginnings but has now evolved even further within the company’s narrative.

Primary species include ash, cherry, hard maple, red oak, soft maple, white oak, basswood, beech, birch, walnut, poplar and hickory, which are great for high-end furniture, millwork, cabinetry, doors, flooring and paneling, and more.

“There are many markets in which buyers use some market statistic to judge the quality of prospective purchases. In this case there is an incentive for sellers to market poor quality merchandise, since the returns for good quality accrue mainly to the entire group whose statistic is affected rather than to the individual seller. As a result there tends to be a reduction in the average quality of goods and also the size of the market.” long, frigid winter climate, coupled with a short summer season, produces hardwoods with very tight growth rings. This creates lumber with outstanding color and fine texture, which is ideal for applications ranging from furniture, cabinetry and doors to flooring, paneling and more.

Eldorado Stone, San Diego, Ca., is rolling out a new brand narrative that imagines the long-lasting memories and moments that can be created inside of a newly designed space. Through a refreshed logo, website, new brand colors and other visual elements, Eldorado Stone encourages the idea that designing and personalizing an indoor or outdoor space can be the start of something beautiful.

This region supplies nine primary, widely used species, including: ash, basswood, cherry, hickory, hard maple, red oak, soft maple, white oak and walnut.

The new logo emphasizes a more contemporary approach with a nuanced, yet timeless font treatment. The iconic diamond has also been reinterpreted to convey the multifaceted character of the brand’s products and the spaces they help to create, and it is positioned prominently next to the brand name while the new tagline “The Start of Something Beautiful” completes the design.

Appalachian Region: Superior Quality

Spanning several states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, the Appalachian region produces a wide range of hardwoods species—all with one thing in common: superior quality.

Another approach is to more aggressively brand products. In either case, the mill’s products need to be clearly differentiated from their competitors’; as we discovered earlier, industry-wide, third-party quality certification is important but not sufficient. Like car buyers, panel buyers won’t chance paying peach prices when they may actually be buying a “dressed up” lemon.

No matter the region they come from, there are many North American hardwoods species to choose from. The decision as to which one to use comes down to the application and overall quality and look of the project.

The acquisition includes the Millwork Development E-Catalog, a quote and configuration application specializing in complex configured items such as doors, windows, and stair parts. The Millwork Development E-Catalog generates branded quotes, orders, and catalog pages, as well as composite images of the configured products.

For some structural panel producers, product differentiation requires a major change in company culture. For instance, it is very difficult to produce innovative, differentiated products for the end use market if the company doesn’t also adapt a different supplier-buyer mindset. Supplierpartners are often critical to the structural wood panel producer’s differentiation.

Eldorado Stone is a division of Westlake Royal Building Products.

“Millwork Development provides the leading set of tools to the millwork industry,” said CEO Cal German. “The innovative platform provides enhanced configuration, imaging and eCommerce solutions. We’re excited to combine our resources to deliver the next generation of industry-leading products to our customers.”

As industry competition comes to focus more and more upon only one of the “4P’s of marketing”—price— “lemons” tend to proliferate and industry sales volume tends to decline.

DMSI ADDS E-CATALOG SOLUTIONS

Thanks to the region’s climate conditions—warm summers that assist with tree growth, and cooler spring

“For over 50 years, Eldorado Stone’s premium stone and brick veneer profiles have pushed the boundaries of possibilities for creating beautiful spaces,” said Sarah Lograsso, director of marketing & product design. “Now, we want to inspire the industry to see the spaces where we live, work and

When the industry is young, industry production technologies vary little and raw materials are relatively homogeneous (e.g., OSB), this isn’t a major problem. But it is a serious problem when the inspection and testing agencies find it difficult or impossible to keep up with a very rapidly changing industry. An example would be today’s overlaid Douglas fir plywood industry. There are rapid changes underway on both the demand side (e.g., much higher alkalinity concrete mixes are now essentially “pulping” conform panels) and on the supply side (e.g., much reduced

DMSi Software, Omaha, Ne., has acquired Millwork Development, a

Hpm Acquires Interior Solutions Supplier 87zero

In a major expansion of its product lines, services and facilities,

–Roy Nott is president of Surfactor Americas LLC, Aberdeen, Wa., a German-owned producer of overlays, glue films, and press cleaning films for the global wood panel industry, with manufacturing operations in Finland, Germany and Malaysia. Reach him at roy.nott@surfactor.com.