WASHINGTON — The U.S. Forest Service is investing $9,622,000 to support a diverse range of 17 projects in Oregon through the Wood Innovations Program.

End uses for the funding include creating innovative wood products, developing more markets to use mass timber and renewable energy, and increasing the capacity of wood processing and manufacturing facilities.  

“Oregon has the best wood products in the world, and federal funding opportunities like the Wood Innovations Program help keep our state at the forefront of timber innovation while uplifting our rural communities,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley. “These projects are a win-win to develop new Oregon-made wood products and to reduce the risk of high severity wildfires on our forests.”

The 17 projects selected in Oregon are being funded in the following three Wood Innovations Program grant categories:

Wood Innovation Grants 

• $300,000 for Single Widget for production of wood wool cement, a fire-resistant and lower-cost building material.
• $297,300 for the Western Forestry and Conservation Association to establish a logging career training program to expand a critical workforce and advance forest management and hazardous fuels reduction.
• $296,570 for Base Design and Architecture to expand their use of mass timber in housing production to support active forest management and advance domestic markets for small-diameter timber.
• $229,199 for Freres Lumber to enhance the market for biochar, or black carbon produced from biomass sources, at a plywood manufacturer to support active forest management on national forests in Oregon.
• $165,000 for KRFF Consulting Engineers to develop resilient design criteria for the International Building Code to accelerate the adoption of mass timber.
• $100,000 for Timberlab to provide key data and results of mass timber fire sealing solutions to accelerate adoption of domestic wood products.
• $59,060 for CedarStone to design and engineer single-family mass timber homes.
• $50,000 for Wisewood to provide life cycle assessment to advance biomass energy projects using wildfire fuel reduction materials.

Community Wood Grants

• $1 million for JB Wood Recyclers to convert its wood drying kilns from natural gas to wood biomass combustion.
• $1 million for Patrick Lumber Manufacturing to upgrade its hardwood sawmill equipment to increase production capacity.
• $898,701 for Carpentry Plus to promote and produce local mass timber products
• $869,172 for Top Hat Mushrooms to design and install a biomass boiler to recycle biomass and residual wood waste.

Wood Products Infrastructure Assistance Grants 

• $1 million for the Freres Lumber for upgrades to mass timber product manufacturing equipment to increase processing capacity.
• $1 million for Mt. Hood Forest Products to upgrade its log processing systems to increase the small log processing capacity.
• $922,018 for the Collins Pine Company to upgrade its log handling and lumber processing operations.
• $750,000 for Iron Triangle to upgrade its sawmill and lumber manufacturing equipment.
• $684,980 for Northwest Hardwoods to improve lumber process capacity and increase utilization of underused species of lumber trees.