Site Announcements

National Forest Products Week is October 15-22, 2023

For this year’s National Forest Products Week, 15-22 October 2023, we at Team AgLearn recognize the value of our forests and the vital role they play in our daily lives. Americans depend on their forests for so much—clean air and water, habitat for native fish and wildlife, wood for lumber and other products, opportunities for outdoor recreation, and more. Indeed, forests are the backbone of our environment and critical to our economic success. Join us this week as we celebrate our forests and recognize the importance of their sustainable use.

Forest Products Resources

Events

Celebrate National Forest Products Week with the Forest Products Laboratory Webinars.

Bigger than a Woodchip: The Art of Building Materials

Dr. Marco Lo Ricco, Research General Engineer, will introduce a few examples of mass timber research at the Forest Products Laboratory and moderate a panel of speakers to include:

Dr. Shiling Pei, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado School of Mines
Jordan Komp, Professional Engineer/Structural Engineer and Associate Principal of Thornton Tomasetti
Mark Weaver, Structural Engineer and Principal of Karagozian & Case (Glendale, CA)

Date: October 16, 2023

Time: 10:30am - 11:30am CST

Register: The Art of Building Materials webinar External Link

Bigger than a Woodchip: Building and Fire Sciences

The Lab partners with industry to support the development of new wood products and provide data that can be used to justify the use of more wood in building applications, including data used to support the construction of the Ascent building (currently the world’s tallest wood building). The unique experimental capabilities of the fire laboratory allow us to assess a wide range of fuels including solid timber, engineered wood products, wood based composites, and forest and grassland vegetation in collaboration with and in support of Forest Service research stations.

Dr. Sam Zelinka, Fire Lab Project Leaders, Dr. Laura Hasberg, Kara Yedinak, and Sam Glass will provide an overview of Building and Fire Sciences, structural fire resistance topics, Wildfire and Urban interface issues, and other building and science research.

Date: October 16, 2023

Time: 2:00pm - 3:00pm CST

Register: Building and Fire Sciences webinar External Link

Smaller than a Woodchip: Promising Applications of Nanocellulose and Lignin

This session will focus on the 1000-foot level introduction to cellulose nanomaterials - what are they, what they can do, what are they good for, and who we collaborate with to search for and research innovative ideas for sustainable materials such as cement, sunscreen, flexible electronics, polymer composites, and food coating.

Date: October 17, 2023

Time: 10:30am - 11:30am CST

Register: Promising Applications of Nanocellulose and Lignin webinar External Link

Smaller than a Woodchip Packaging for a Sustainable Future

In this webinar, Dr. Ronald Sabo will provide an introduction to wood-based nanomaterials and an overview of some of the ongoing research to develop sustainable packaging products.

Wood has long been used as a packaging material and continues to be one of the primary sources for producing packaging products, including corrugated boxes, shelf-ready packaging, and shipping pallets. The use of non-renewable plastics has grown dramatically for packaging products, especially single-use packages, largely because of their low cost, ease of manufacturing, sanitary properties, and barrier performance. Unfortunately, these products typically are not readily recyclable or biodegradable and often pollute the environment. Recent advances in wood-based nanotechnology offer the potential to use wood fibers to create packaging materials whose performance is comparable to plastics. These wood-based micro- and nanofibers have been shown to have good grease and oxygen barriers and offer the opportunity to create sustainable, recyclable, and biodegradable packaging products that can compete in performance to plastics.

Date: October 17, 2023

Time: 2:00pm - 3:00pm CST

Register: Packaging for a Sustainable Future webinar External Link

Early Career Exploration: Research Opportunities and Career Development

Learn more about the work we do during National Forest Products Week!

Date: October 18, 2023

Time: 10:30am - 11:30am CST

Register: Research Opportunities and Career Development webinar External Link

Partnerships and Collaboration: Industry Applications and Research

Learn more about the work we do during National Forest Products Week!

Date: October 19, 2023

Time: 10:30am - 11:30am CST

Register: Industry Applications and Research webinar External Link

Partnerships and Collaboration: Library Research, Innovations, and Productivity

This session will focus on Wood Collections “library of woods” at the Forest Products Laboratory and The National Forest Library System.

Dr. J. Rafael E. Arevalo B., Botanist-Collections Manager will discuss the history of the collections, its applications to research, and share a glimpse of the large collection at the Lab.

The Forest Products Laboratory Library is one of two specialized branches in the three-branch National Forest Service Library system. The system provides access to electronic journals and bibliographic databases, current literature alerting, reference, and interlibrary loan services to support the needs of Forest Service employees and is open to the public for reference inquiries and assistance accessing Forest Service research.

Date: October 19, 2023

Time: 2:00pm - 3:00pm CST

Register: Library Research, Innovations, and Productivity webinar External Link

AgLearn Resources

Permalink