For close to 100 years, the Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) has worked to make forests healthier, rural economies stronger, and quality of life better for all Americans. It is a bold statement to make, but perhaps no other research laboratory in America has had a greater impact on our way of life than the FPL.

When you consider that the Nation’s first prefabricated house was developed and constructed at the FPL in the 1940s, that we had a significant role in the development of such commonly used engineered wood products as glulam beams, plywood, and oriented strandboard (OSB), and that many of today’s processes for producing paper and packaging were developed at least in part at the FPL, the reach of our research really begins to take shape. In addition, the FPL’s development of Best Opening Face sawmilling optimization technology in the 1970s, still in use today, is estimated to save about 1 billion board feet of lumber from going to waste annually. This technology also saved a probable industry collapse at the time. The impact of our research is even more evident when you consider the countless products produced over the years using FPL-developed drying schedules and grading procedures; and the quality, safety and consistency of American forest products that our work with codes and standards has ensured.

However, recent developments caused us to take a long hard look at our programs. Some of the reasons for doing so were out of our hands. For instance, to help cover the costs of other administration priorities, the Forest Service, along with many other government agencies, was asked to take a critical look at its operations and make tough decisions on what services we could continue to provide to the public. Just like many other locations in the Forest Service, the FPL needed to make some hard choices about what programs it would continue to fund, and what programs would be scaled back or eliminated. But perhaps the bigger question that we were wrestling with was simply whether or not the FPL was still conducting research in areas that were going to have the biggest pay-off for the American taxpayer. After much thought and discussion both among ourselves and with our many partners, our leadership team decided that it was time to refocus the research direction of the FPL.

Making program changes is never easy. However, after many planning sessions with the FPL Management Team, and perhaps more importantly, our key partners and customers, we made some tough, but I believe necessary, decisions. Research Work Units were consolidated to increase our operating efficiency. Programs that were deemed to be mature were scaled back or eliminated. Some administrative support positions were eliminated to put more money back into our research program.

By streamlining our operations and refocusing our research direction, we were able to pool our remaining resources into those areas that we felt presented the greatest opportunity for growth and resurgence in the forest products industry. After all, if the FPL is to be successful in its mission of providing forest managers the tools necessary to reduce the build up of undesirable material in our Nation’s forests, then we desperately need to begin rebuilding and reenergizing America’s forest products sector.

It is no secret that forest fires have been increasingly burning hotter and more destructively. Part of the problem is a severe build up of fuel loads in the under story. Mill closures across the West and elsewhere have eliminated the infrastructure and markets necessary to process the amount of material that needs to come out of our forests to restore them to health. Without an economic incentive to remove and use the material, the enormous burden is left to the taxpayer. What is needed to restore the forest products industry and improve forest health is breakthrough developments in emerging areas such as biorefining, nanotechnology, and advanced composites. These sustainable technologies can also help reduce our dependence on foreign oil, increase National security, sequester carbon, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help fight the effects of global warming.

The bottom line to all of this is that we had to make some tough choices, but I believe in the end we came out of the experience much better prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century. I hope that in the coming decades we look back at this time as a turning point in America’s history that resulted in a brighter future for America and America's forests; an America less dependent on foreign oil, emitting less greenhouse gases, while at the same time enjoying an even better quality of life due to breakthroughs in some revolutionary technologies. We realize the FPL will not accomplish this work alone. It will take many of us working together to accomplish this vision, and the Forest Products Laboratory will be a leader in this effort.

As you page through this booklet, I hope you get a sense of the optimism and possibilities posed by our research program. And if you are ever in Madison, Wisconsin, we invite you to stop by to see firsthand the visionary work our research staff and many partners are doing.

By Dr. Chris Risbrudt
Director, U.S. Forest Service,
Forest Products Laboratory

TO READ THE COMPLETE FOREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY BUSINESS PLAN, CLICK ON THE "PDF" BELOW

USFS Forest Products Lab Bus. Plan