Treesearch

The month-over-month and year-over-year housing data for September were mixed. Single-family permits and starts, harbingers for current and future construction, were negative month-over-month and year-over-year. Completions remained slowed due to the unavailability of building materials and products, among other factors. Total and single-family housing under construction were the only categories positive on month-over-month and year-over-year bases.

In the bio-based economy, conversion of biomass to biofuels and other products is essential for developing a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. For this to become a reality, understanding of the biomass ultrastructure is critically important. For instance, to enhance the yield of fermentable sugars from enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose, the understanding of the latter’s supramolecular structure and the ability to modify it appropriately is essential. Although cellulose crystallinity is one way to define the aggregated structure, previous research has shown that merely studying how...

Diospyros L. (Ebenaceae) is an important source of ebony, a precious wood used for several economically importanttimber products. Species are overexploited in many regions, including Madagascar, for both the national and international trade,but little is known about their wood anatomy, despite its importance for forensic identification. Wood anatomy has a majorrole to play in ensuring the sustainable and equitable utilization of Diospyros species that are not threatened by extinction,and in law enforcement to protect threatened species from illegal logging. This study aims to identify,...

Studies linking wood properties of the southern pines to climate parameters and/or irrigation treatments have generally used seedlings or mid-rotation age trees, the latter comprised primarily of juvenile wood. To investigate possible drought-induced effects on mature wood physical properties, densitometry data from 50-year-old slash (Pinus elliottiiEngelm.), longleaf (Pinus palustrisMill.), and loblolly (taeda L.) pine trees were matched with annual soil moisture values. Each of two growth ring groupings per increment core had a two-year period of ample moisture followed by a two-year...

This paper presents research conducted to examine the potential of using longitudinal vibration techniques to evaluate the modulus of elasticity and strength of cross-laminated timber (CLT). Thirty-nine CLT panels were manufactured from southern pine dimension lumber in accordance with accepted manufacturing standards. Nominal 2 by 8 in. southern pine lumber specimens were used for the three-ply panels. A 10-ft-long specimen, having a 4.125- by 18-in. cross-section, was obtained from each panel. Weight and dimensions were determined for each specimen, and longitudinal vibration nondestructi...

Lignin contents of mature wood growth rings formed under soil moisture extremes were determined to investigate the possibility of drought-caused reductions in lignin deposition for the southern pines. A well-defined set of slash (Pinus elliottii Engelm.), longleaf (Pinus palustris Mill.) and loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) increment cores were processed to excise growth rings formed during multiyear periods of above- (wet) or below-normal (drought) soil moisture. The average acid-insoluble (Klason) lignin content of the resultant drought-formed slash pine wood samples was signifcantly lower...

The year 2020 was unlike any other in recent United States and world history as a result of the 2019 COVID-19 coronavirus disease wreaking havoc on world health and nearly shuttering the global economy. Presented in this report are data and information on the current state of the U.S. economy and wood products markets and near-term prospects. This report is supported by conventional information and statistical data concerning forest products in terms of consumption, consumer credit, industrial production, prices, and trade. Market development information is offered for sawn softwood and...

A new nonparametric solution to the two-sample problem for quantiles is proposed. This solution is applicable to small samples and/or extreme quantiles, and it prioritizes limiting Type I error to the indicated level of significance over optimizing power or confidence interval width. Aside from continuity, no assumptions about the distributions are made. In this approach, nonparametric random confidence intervals obtained from the samples are “melded,” resulting in a nonparametric confidence interval for the difference between the two population quantiles with a specified confidence level....

The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities and the USDA Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory commissioned the Athena Sustainable Materials Institute to update four previous cradle-to-gate life cycle assessments (LCAs) of wood product resin systems (ureaformaldehyde (UF), melamine-urea-formaldehyde (MUF), phenol-formaldehyde (PF), and phenol-resorcinol-formaldehyde (PRF) as developed by Wilson 2009 [1] and develop new cradleto-gate LCAs for melamine-formaldehyde (MF), emulsion polymer isocyanate (EPI) and polymer emulsion polyurethane (PEP) wood resins. This LCA project has been...