During National Forest Products Week, the USDA Forest Service announced it is making nearly $34 million in funding available through its Wood Innovations, Community Wood and Wood Products Infrastructure Assistance grant programs. The Forest Service is seeking proposals that support crucial links between resilient, healthy forests, strong rural economies and jobs in the forestry sector. Funding for these programs is intended to spark innovation, create new markets for wood products and renewable wood energy and expand processing capacity. You can read the full news release on the Forest Service’s website.

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Photo credit: Larry Krueger.

The people who make Wisconsin’s forest products industry function are vast and varied. It’s estimated that more than 123,000 jobs in the state are tied to the forest industry. From the foresters and woodland owners caring for the forest to the loggers and truckers getting the logs from the forest to the sawmills and pulp mills throughout the state to the workers creating finished wood and paper products, it takes a wealth of passionate people to produce the many forest products you depend on every day.

Larry Krueger, a co-owner and sawmill manager of Krueger Lumber, is one of those working in the heart of Wisconsin’s forest products industry – fitting, as Krueger said he was born into it.

“My father Herb Krueger started Krueger Lumber in 1969,” Krueger continued. “The more you see the beautiful, natural products from our forest, the more you grow to love and appreciate its beauty.”

In his role, Krueger wears many hats. His day at the mill begins at 6:15 a.m. with a hard hat as he tours the sawmill to ensure smooth operations.

“I speak to various workers at different production points, checking for any problems and to see what’s new. I walk from the sawmill to the dry kilns and warehouses. I stop at the different lumber grading areas, speaking to the graders about any questions or issues they are seeing in the kiln-dried lumber being re-graded for quality,” he said.

Selling kiln-dried lumber is one of Krueger’s top priorities; after ensuring everything is running smoothly, he trades in his hard hat for a sales pitch.

“Throughout the rest of the day, I speak with and email regular and potential customers,” Krueger said. Continue reading “Larry Krueger Shares Insights From Forest Products Industry Career” →

Wood stores carbon throughout its life. Photo credit: DNR

Wisconsin’s forests and forest products have a dual role in climate change. They are impacted by climate change, but also help mitigate its effects by storing carbon in wood products from sustainably harvested forests.

Sustainably managed forests in Wisconsin provide essential raw materials for more than 1,200 wood product companies and 280 logging businesses. Annual forest growth in the state significantly exceeds the volume harvested. In 2013, Wisconsin’s primary wood-using mills received 307 million cubic feet of industrial roundwood, while net growth reached 576 million cubic feet — an impressive 18 cubic feet of wood growing every second – and enough to fill Camp Randall Stadium roughly 108 times over.

When sustainably harvested wood is used in long-lived products such as lumber, furniture, windows and doors, it stores carbon throughout its life, only releasing it back into the atmosphere when it decays. Compared to concrete and steel, wood is gaining popularity as a building material due to its carbon-storing capacity ­– about half of dry wood is carbon – and its renewability. Additionally, it requires a less energy-intensive manufacturing process.

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Wisconsin exported around $1.3 billion worth of forest products in 2022. Photo credit: DNR

The economic impact of Wisconsin’s forests cannot be understated.

The annual value of products from Wisconsin’s forest industry is over $24 billion, representing 2.3% of the state’s gross domestic product. Forest industries in Wisconsin employ around 58,000 individuals.

The economic influence of Wisconsin’s forest products industry extends to other sectors through inter-industry transactions and household spending. The forest products industry contributed an additional 66,000 jobs and $13.1 billion in output, bringing the total to over 123,000 jobs and $38 billion in production tied to the forest products sector. To help contextualize the scale of that impact, consider this: For every ten jobs in the forest products industry, 11 jobs were created in other areas of the economy.

Continue reading “The Economic Powerhouse Of Wisconsin’s Forest Products Industry” →