USFS: Supporting the Hardwood Industry with Research and Market Development

By BRIAN BRASHAW, PHD Assistant Director

Forest Service, State, Private & Tribal Forestry Cooperative Forestry

The hardwood industry is important to me. My dad worked for a hardwood lumber company in Wisconsin when I was a kid, and I understood the critical connection between forestry and healthy forests. Trained as both a forester and wood products specialist, I joined the USDA Forest Service to continue supporting expanded wood product markets.

The Forest Service is actively engaged in hardwood product research through the Forest Products Laboratory, and this month’s column will focus on the Wood Innovations program. Research and market development go hand-in-hand to supporting the wood products industry.

A healthy forest products industry is an indispensable tool for supporting the management of healthy forests, and robust markets for the full range of forest products are essential for having a healthy industry. Strong markets for forest products improve forest health and resilience and support key benefits that forests provide people, like clean water, clean air, wildlife habitat, and recreation opportunities. They also support jobs and rural economic development.

The Wood Innovations program focuses on building and expanding markets for wood products and renewable wood energy and building manufacturing capacity. Annually, we issue three grant programs to support these goals. The Wood Innovation, Community Wood, and Wood Products Infrastructure Assistance grant programs use funding from annual appropriations, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act to support market development, fund the cost of installing thermally-led wood energy systems or innovative wood product manufacturing facilities, and support the ability to establish, reopen, retrofit, expand, or improve facilities to use materials removed from hazardous fuel treatments. You can find information on these programs and future funding opportunity announcements on our Wood Innovations | US Forest Service (usda.gov) website.

On June 26th, NHLA was awarded a $500,000 matching grant from the Forest Service Wood Innovations Program to support and expand markets for the United States hardwood industry. By strengthening and building new markets for products, our support will directly help improve the management and sustainability of hardwood forests. This investment builds on other Wood Innovations and Community Wood grants that were awarded to nine NHLA members to support their efforts to build markets, add innovative processing equipment and technology, and expand the use of wood energy. We were pleased to support Bingaman & Son Lumber, BPM Lumber, Brownlee Lumber, Inc., Cumberland Cooperage, Dunaway Timber Company, Matson Lumber Company, Northwest Hardwoods, Inc., Northern Hardwoods Lumber, LLC, and Thompson Appalachian Hardwoods.

With the new NHLA partnership, we will work together to strengthen and recapture markets for decorative hardwood products but also work for new markets for lumber in thermally modified lumber and structural hardwoods, demonstrating the potential for use in industrial and structural cross-laminated timber (CLT). These commercial, institutional, and multi-family buildings are new market opportunities to use wood instead of other non-renewable materials like steel or concrete. We also invested in the first U.S hardwood CLT plant and continue investing in education, engineering project assistance, and construction programs to support market expansion. New opportunities are also emerging for other innovations like wood energy, biochar, biofuels, and biochemicals.

My team and I look forward to working with NHLA to build a great future for hardwood markets.

Brian Brashaw, Assistant Director, Forest Service, State, Private & Tribal Forestry Cooperative Forestry Wood Innovations