ha website proves to be valuable no. 531 june 2013
TRANSCRIPT
No. 531 June 2013 WHA Board of Directors
Mike Lipke President
Lee Jimerson Vice President
Kurt Landwehr Treasurer
Darrin Hastings Immediate Past President
Adam Brennan
Nils Dickmann
Jeff Marthaller
Lindy Stallard David Sweitzer Secretary/Manager P.O. Box 1095 Camas, WA 98607 Ph: (360) 835-1600 Fax: (360) 835-1900 Web: www.westernhardwood.org Email: [email protected]
W HA Website Proves to be Valuable
For the past 8 full years of measuring hits to the WHA website (2005 – 2012), we
have been impressed with the traffic it has generated. Even though we tend to peak just
before a major WHA event, several menu choices consistently get exceptional attention.
Some of the top choices include the membership directory, newsletter, and hardwood
facts and workability characteristics.
Find many important resources on the website:
events
newsletters
member directory by Sawmills, Manufacturers, Re-Manufacturers, Pallet
Producers, Wholesaler/ Distributors, Landowners, Timber Owners, Service
Organizations (freight companies, Truckers, Consultants, etc.)
annual meeting presentations
hardwood silviculture
hardwood workability specifications
interactive grading descriptions
links to important hardwood contacts
Free banner ads are available for all members - contact WHA office for information
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The Benefits of Using Biomass
Produce affordable, local, renewable energy and other
products of value by using material that would
otherwise be wasted.
Stimulate rural economies, providing jobs and keeping
dollars in the community by collecting, processing and
using the resource locally.
Support needed forest restoration projects by offsetting
some of the costs and using market forces to leverage
the federal dollars spent on forest health to bring
broader benefits to the community.
Reduce air pollution through more controlled burning,
be creating markets for material that would otherwise
be burned openly in slash piles or wildfires.
Reduce net carbon emissions to the atmosphere—
although both fossil fuel and biomass release carbon
when burned, biomass removes it from the atmosphere
while it is growing.
“A market is never saturated with a good product, but it is very quickly saturated with a bad one.”
-Henry Ford
ently, the Senate passed a Farm Bill with
several important forestry provisions by a wide margin, 66
to 27. The strong vote should generate some pressure on
the House to follow suit. The Senate bill includes
authority for the Forest Service to expand the use of Healthy Forest Restoration Act authorities to lands which
may be threatened by insects or catastrophic fire (current
law only allows them to apply these provisions on lands
currently under insect attack or lands adjacent). The bill
also includes permanent reauthorization of Stewardship
Contracting Authority.
Following the passing of the Farm Bill by the Senate,
the House voted in favor of an amendment to the 2013 Farm Bill offered by Representatives Jaime Herrera
Beutler (R-WA) and Kurt Schrader (D-OR) to clarify that
forest roads do not require EPA clean water permits.
The amendment, which is identical to the bipartisan
Silviculture Regulatory Consistency Act (H.R. 2026),
would codify the EPA’s long-standing policy that forestry
activities and forest roads are nonpoint sources under the
Clean Water Act and are most effectively regulated by
states through Best Management Practices (BMPs). It will restore legal certainty, promote water quality and protect
jobs by preserving EPA’s longstanding policy that such
roads are nonpoint sources.
* Legislative Update
* Outlook
* Upcoming Events
* Get Motivated
In This Issue:
Jo in WHA First time membership is $150 the first year and for a limited time, $150 for the second year also.
The WHA is the only organization dedicated exclusively to the availability and promotion of Western Hardwoods. Membership benefits include:
online membership directory listing one free newsletter ad company profile in newsletter our monthly email newsletter important industry updates by email a free banner ad on WHA’s website cost effective newsletter advertising networking at the Annual Meeting discounts on Association meeting registration politically active through the
Hardwood Federation
Joining is quick and easy. Use the online membership application and simply pay by credit card, www.westernhardwood.org.
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The U.S. multifamily housing market has largely
recovered and entered a state of equilibrium and
sustainability, according to a first quarter report released
by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
The organization also continues to see a shortage in
workers with basic construction skills and higher costs for
some building supplies.
North American hardwood lumber prices have
been rising almost continuously for over seven months.
Price increases seem to be driven, at least in part, by
higher demand, not just low production. U.S. hardwood
lumber exports during three of the first four months of
2013 set records for those particular months. Finally, kiln-
dried lumber inventories are low, and sellers have lots of
orders booked for lumber now in kilns.
-excerpted from Hardwood Review Express
Exhibitors, buyers, and observers headed to the
Spring 2013 High Point Furniture Market—the world’s
largest wholesale home furnishings show, with more
optimism than they’ve had in some time. Reports about
the Market were quite positive and seem to indicate that
furniture demand is finally gaining some momentum.
Wood furniture suppliers introduced myriad new
bedroom and dining room collections in a broad range of
styles and finishes, as well as case goods
with innovative features and multiple
functions, according to reports from
FURNITURE/Today®. While clean lines
and smooth surfaces were the rule, many
new wood introductions featured distressed
finishes and rough edges, as designers and
manufacturers recognize that a fair number
of consumers still want casual or rustic-
looking furniture. This market also
included more reclaimed wood—and some new wood
processed to look like reclaimed wood—though it remains
a very small niche. Darker finishes with familiar names
like espresso, sable and mocha were still more prevalent in
the wood categories than light or medium finishes. Fresh
splashes of color were found here and there in case goods
lines, mostly as accents to the primary browns, blacks and
grays.
In contrast, the bright colors now fashionable in
clothing were prominently featured in new upholstered
furniture collections. Oranges and yellows along with
bright shades of blues and greens, like turquoise and
emerald, could be found in showroom after showroom. –excerpted from Hardwood Review Express
On the West Coast, lumber is moving faster
for hardwood lumber suppliers and buyers.
Buyers are choosing to accept price increases
or go without. According to one southern
California contact, most species are turning
quickly.
A Washington source says that demand has picked
up and is mostly fueled by increased
orders from China and rebounds in
domestic residential construction activity.
The source, who markets to both end-
users and distribution yards in the U.S.
and overseas, also notes that his customers expect growth
for the year and expect more to come, something they
haven’t heard in awhile.
Quebec area contacts said as the spr ing
break-up period was upon them, log
supplies were low. Some reported being in
good shape, while others were building
their inventories.
Contacts in Ontario are still expressing concerns
over supply issues for several species.
This is in part caused by spring break-up
and weather in general, and some complex
factors, such as the strain on supply caused
by a reduction in overall production
needed to respond to market demand and
the resurgence of the U.S. housing sector.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has
released a schedule for completing its truck weight study
as mandated under MAP-21. The study must be
completed by November 2014 with a preliminary draft out
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in the spring of 2014. DOT is planning on holding at least
four stakeholder outreach events, and the entire study will
be guided by CDM Smith & Associates.
The Hardwood Federation is working with allies on
the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to
drum up support for H.R.6212, the Safe an Efficient
Transportation Act of 2013 (SETA). The Act would raise
truck weights from 80,000 lbs. to 97,000 lbs. with the
addition of a sixth axle. The act could help level the
playing field amongst trade competitors/partners while
simultaneously leading to improvements in safety,
efficiency, and economic value.
The logging industry in North Carolina is coming
back to life. Loggers in NC wetland forests are clear -
cutting decades old trees and bringing jobs back to area
communities that were hard hit by mill closures in the last
several years. Many of the larger, older tree trunks go for
lumber. The smaller trees and limbs go to a mill close by
where they are ground up, compressed into pellets, and put
on ships bound for Europe where an environmental push is
putting pressure on some coal-burning power plants to
switch to wood to reduce the use of fossil-fuel and carbon-
dioxide emissions. Since the European forest don’t have
spare wood for fuel and U.S. forests are larger with fewer
restrictions, they are devouring wood from the U.S. One
firm said that they can barely keep up the demand for
pellets from Europe.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has
proposed two new rules limiting the amount of
formaldehyde emitted from hardwood plywood, medium-
density fiberboard, particleboard, and finished goods that
are sold, supplied, offered for sale, manufactured, or
imported into the U.S.
EPA’s standard would set limits on how much
formaldehyde may be released by composite wood
products and include requirements for testing and product
labeling, recordkeeping, chain of custody documentation, a
stockpiling prohibition, and enforcement provisions.
The second proposed rule would create a framework
for a third-party certification system to ensure that
manufacturers have their composite wood products
certified through an accredited third-party certifier.
Up Coming Meetings
July 8-11, 2013 Advanced Insect & Disease Field Session Hood River, OR Email: [email protected]
September 4, 2013 WHA Board Meeting Portland, OR Email: [email protected]
September 18, 2013 Washington Hardwoods Commission Meeting Olympia, WA Email: w hc@wahardwoodscom m .com
September 24, 2013 2013 PNW Reforestation Council Vancouver, WA Email: [email protected]
October 9, 2013 Forest Tech 2013 Portland, OR Email: [email protected]
Have upcoming event or company news? Let us know and we’ll help you get the word out, both here and on our website. Drop us a line and let us know!
The 2013 edition of Green Book's Softwood Marketing Directory is available ONLINE! This service gives softwood lumber sales representatives instant access to over 3,800 woodworking and industrial plants' Softwood lumber purchasing needs. It is a free service with a
qualifying Ad program in The Softwood Forest Products Buyer. Without an Ad program, it can be accessed for $900 per year. Each listing includes species, grades, thicknesses and quantities of lumber purchased regularly. It also gives the lumber buyer's name, address, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and web address. The 2013 edition of Green Book's Hardwood Marketing Directory is also available for lease in both a printed version and ONLINE! It is filled with over 6,000 woodworking plants and distribution/concentration yards throughout North America. This directory contains the same type information as the Softwood directory and can be accessed for $1,900 per year, or at a discounted rate with a qualifying Ad program in National Hardwood Magazine or Import/Export Wood Purchasing News. For more information on either Green Book, contact Grayce Thurman at 901-372-8280 or [email protected]
I n d ep endence Day
Ju ly 4th Ju ly 1 s t
The California State Board of Equalization has delayed until September a final decision on the controversial “Lumber Products Assessment”. In question and needing more accurate data is the methodology and the number of businesses affected and their revenue projections. While the measure was intended to make California’s timber producers more competitive with other states, in reality it provides funding for more state employees to monitor timber operations and adds considerable expense to the retailers who are expected to collect the assessment.
The NHLA and Hardwood Federation scored a victory in May after years of working with Congress, agencies, and member companies to have NHLA Kiln Dry Certificate approved throughout the world. Vietnam is accepting this change in policy an the first shipment using the program were accepted by the Vietnamese in early May. This is a very large first step towards extensive global acceptance of the program.
Great By Choice
By Gabriel Curry
One hundred years ago, two teams raced to be the first humans ever to reach the South Pole. The winning team, led by Norwegian Roald Amundsen, took no risks with unproven technology. He dressed in animal skins like an Eskimo and traveled with skis and dogsled.
The competition, led by Englishman Robert F. Scott, sought to gain advantage using motorized sledges and high-tech clothing. His men not only trailed Amundsen’s in reaching the pole; none of them made it back alive.
This bleak history lesson serves as the backdrop to business writer Jim Collins’ most recent book, Great by Choice. If you are familiar with Collins’ first best-seller, Good to Great, you will
already be familiar with his analytical dissection of businesses as a means of finding common traits that separate successful businesses from their inferior competitors. This time, he is joined by co-author Morten Hansen, and they exhaustively analyzed 7 companies who enjoyed tremendous success during a 15 year period ending in 2002 and compared them to 7 competitors during the same time frame. To add a little zing to the storytelling, he used the South Pole story as a metaphor to illustrate their findings. It seems the same traits that characterized success with the companies he studied could be neatly applied to the expeditions. In a nutshell, here’s what the data reveal about successful companies:
1. They are highly disciplined. This sounds like a no-brainer. But there are nuances to the concept of discipline. It means pushing yourself to meet your goals in spite of adverse weather; it also means
forcing yourself not to go further than your goal on a good day when you should be resting. Collins nicknames this principle the 20-Mile March. “The 20-Mile March ,” the authors write, “creates two types of self-imposed discomfort: the discomfort of unwavering commitment to high performance in difficult conditions, and the discomfort of holding back in good conditions.”
2. They are not necessarily the ones with the best ideas. They do, however , devote a lot of resources to good ideas after thoroughly testing them. It’s a principle Collins calls Bullets, Then Cannonballs. “The best leaders we studied did not have a visionary ability to predict the future,” the authors say. “They observe what worked, figured out why it worked and built upon proven foundations.”
3. They sleep with one eye open. Even when everything is going great, successful companies are vigilantly looking for the slightest sign of trouble. Dubbed Productive Paranoia, this is the temperament that causes a company to prepare in advance for bumps in the road and have a defensive posture that enables them to survive the blows that would otherwise cause the company to fail.
The book is subtitled, “Uncertainty, Chaos, and
Luck—Why Some Thrive Despite Them All.” And that
for me is the main takeaway. Success isn’t really possible
without that word “despite” somewhere in the story—
despite the economy, despite changing circumstances,
despite conventional wisdom… there’s always an element
of overcoming in any success story. It reaffirms my belief
that when economic downturns come, you don’t have to
participate. People like to believe that the times we live in
are some kind of historic anomaly, when in fact all of
history is one upheaval after another. And if turbulence
and change are a common element to all of human
experience, then the ones who succeed are the ones who
don’t let the weather deter them from their goals. If you sit
in your tent and wait for the weather to moderate every
time a storm passes through, you may not make it home
alive.
-Curry, Gabriel. “Great By Choice”. Hub Industrial Supply Blog.
02 May 2013. <http://blog.hubindustrial.com/archives/newsletters/
great-by-choice>
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