Forest Products

Wood is a renewable resource and sustainable material when it is harvested from responsibly managed forests. Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS) scientists are developing innovative wood products and management techniques that benefit landscapes and local economies. These include biochar, biomass, salvage logging, small diameter wood uses, and effects of these industries on rural economies.

Read the Biomass & Wood Products Fact Sheet.

Featured work

• An A-to-Z guide to biochar production, use, and benefits: This guide describes how to turn excess forest organic material into economically and environmentally valuable biochar, how to use it, and how to apply it.
• There’s more to harvesting than green timber and sawlogs: A collaborative team  studied how salvage operations conducted in beetle-killed stands could be more efficient and safer by customizing harvest systems and logistics at the landscape scale.
• World Wood Day celebrations are hosted by the International Wood Culture Society and the World Wood Day Foundation. RMRS scientists took part in a virtual webinar series, ‘Fire in the West,’ to share their latest research about wood and fire.
• Comprehensive comparative economic evaluation of woody biomass energy from silvicultural fuel treatments: This study integrates market and nonmarket economic values into a comprehensive economic evaluation of fuel treatment and bioenergy production.
• Rocky Mountain Research Station scientists are working to improve efficiencies of forest operations.
• Why Invest in Biomass? The Benefits of Biomass Markets in the Southwest describes Rocky Mountain Research Station feasibility studies of developing biomass markets in Arizona, New Mexico and southern Colorado. The longer Science You Can Use Bulletin explains more about this project.