Page 11 - Georgia Forestry - Winter 2018

research and people had to come together to make Mayor Lundberg’s dream a reality.
There are countless environmental and eco- nomic benefits to increasing the use of timber in the construction of mid- to high-rise residential and commercial buildings. Architects and devel- opers can choose wood as a recognizable way to reduce the carbon footprint of the building because it is a renewable resource, but to connect all the dots, you need to use locally grown wood.
Manufacturing CLT panels in Oregon using locally grown Douglas fir trees was the result of a very intentional public and private effort to expand timber markets.
In October 2012, former Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber issued an executive order designed to promote Oregon’s wood products and sustainable forest management. The order gave five directives to state agencies and the forest products sector, primarily focused on identifying opportunities to expand the market for wood in public and private construction. To ensure the governor’s directives were carried out, a wide variety of public and private stakeholders were brought together as the Oregon Wood Products Working Group.
In addition to carrying out the executive order, they were successful in identifying two public proj- ects that would be designed using a heavy amount of wood as a structural component. These two projects would include the Richard Woodcock Education Center at Western Oregon University and the Forest Science Complex at Oregon State University (OSU).
In November 2013, as momentum started to build, OSU, under the direction of Forestry School Dean Thomas Maness, held a meeting with forest product manufacturers to discuss mass timber projects in Europe and in Canada as well as the potential for CLT manufacturing in the Pacific Northwest.
The idea sparked the interest of Valerie Johnson, co-owner of D.R. Johnson Lumber Company in Riddle, OR. Johnson’s company also produces gluelam beams, which is similar to the manufac- turing process for CLT. It seemed like a logical way to grow her company.
“At that time, we did feel kind of a surge of excitement about the potential upside to manu- facturing this new product,” Johnson said. “It is a beautiful product that is sustainable and carbon friendly.”
After a year of market research and feasibility studies, Johnson and her sister, Jodi Westbrooks, decided to pursue adding CLT to their company’s suite of manufactured forest products. They would become the first manufacturer of CLT panels in the U.S. and the first to use trees locally grown in Oregon.
COURTESY OF SRG PARTNERSHIP, INC.
MARCUS KAUFFMAN, OREGON DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY
They received a lot of recognition and support from the state government to get the manufac- turing line off the ground. In the fall of 2014, they were awarded a $150,000 grant by Oregon BEST, a public and private partnership organization with the mission of stimulating the state’s clean tech industry. The funding would allow them to col- laborate with a research team of OSU faculty and students to construct a pilot manufacturing line for CLT and test the product produced at the plant. In 2015, they were awarded a $100,000 business loan from Business Oregon, the state’s economic development arm.
D.R. Johnson would go on to provide the CLT panels for Richard Woodcock Education Center at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, which
Above: Mayor Lundberg’s vision for the Glenwood redevelopment aims to reignite the city’s passion for natural resources and forest products.
www.GeorgiaForestryMagazine.com | 9