Oregon can lead the nation into the ‘Wood Century’

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Photo: Valerie Johnson, right, president of DR Johnson and Riddle Laminators showcases cross-laminated timber products at their booth at the WoodWorks Wood Solutions Fair in Portland. With help from Oregon BEST and Oregon State University, DR Johnson will pioneer CLT manufacturing in the U.S.

We wrapped up the first-ever Oregon Forest Products Week on Oct. 25. What a great week!

Gov. Kitzhaber proclaimed the week in concert with National Forest Products Week. More than 500 architects and engineers gathered at the Oregon Convention Center for the third Wood Solutions Fair in Oregon, sponsored by WoodWorks. OFRI had a booth at the fair, and we talked to dozens of participants about Oregon forests, forest management and forest products.

A highlight of the fair was the announcement that DR Johnson’s Riddle Laminators along with Oregon Best and Oregon State University are teaming to turn Oregon into the home for cross-laminated timber manufacturing. CLT has captured the imagination of many architects, engineers and builders who see a future for the wood-panel product as an alternative for concrete and steel in non-residential and tall commercial buildings. Please see the press release for more information.

Also timed for release as part of Forest Products Week, OFRI cooperated with the Washington Forest Protection Agency to produce a video featuring Vancouver, B.C., architect Michael Green on “Why build with wood?”

Michael is a leading voice for using wood in tall commercial structures. Oregon building codes currently limit wood structures to five stories, or six or seven if a concrete podium is used for the ground floors. But Michael is championing tall wood structures, up to 20 stories, as the wave of the future.

And why not? Wood requires less energy to manufacture than other building products, and it stores carbon sucked from the atmosphere for the useful life of the product – which can be for centuries! Modern engineering techniques are proving that new mass timber products such as glulam beams and cross-laminated timber are both earthquake- and fire-resistant.

With our history of timber production, and as the nation’s top manufacturer of dimension lumber and plywood, Oregon can lead the nation in using innovative wood products – including construction of tall non-residential structures.

Let’s work together to change building codes, invest in innovation, and train our college forestry, engineering and architecture students how to build with wood.

Let’s lead the nation into the Wood Century!

For the forest,

Paul Barnum
Executive Director