USDA Upping Its Mass Timber Investments

As the soft housing market in the U.S. is impacting the mass timber movement, the Forest Service is stepping in to help.

“Mass timber and CLT have been priorities for creating new markets for wood products,” said Brian Brashaw, assistant director of the Wood Innovations Program for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service. “Since 2015, the U.S. has 13 new mass timber plants that are capitalizing on commercial, institutional and multifamily building markets.”

The Forest Service’s Wood Innovations, Community Wood and Wood Products Infrastructure Assistance grant programs help manufacturers modernize facilities, adopt advanced technologies and overcome barriers in the U.S. wood products market. Through continued investment in these programs, the agency says it is paving the way for a more competitive and domestic building economy.

Mass timber products like cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glued laminated timber (glulam) have proven to be carbon-storing, renewable alternatives to conventional building materials but because domestic production remains limited, builders have been forced to slow down construction timelines while facing rising costs.

SmartLam North America has been one such company that says it has been benefiting from the USDA programs, said Derek Ratchford, CEO, in a recent interview. “Developers and others are realizing that constructing with mass timber is an efficient and effective investment, one that benefits the development and growth of local economies and the goal of sustaining America’s renewable forest resources.”

Montana-based SmartLam sources wood from sustainably managed forests in the Pacific Northwest and Southeast and says it operates zero-waste facilities that convert byproducts into biomass energy.

More information on these USDA programs is available at www.fs.usda.gov/science-technology/energy-forest-products/wood-innovation.

Image: SmartLam

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