Research Program Summary
The Forest Products Laboratory focuses attention and resources in six strategic emphasis areas:

Conservation of Resources

• Overcoming technical barriers to recycling postconsumer paper and paperboard into paper, paperboard, and composites
• Increasing the amount of recovered wood waste used in new structural construction materials
• Developing advanced high-yield, nonpolluting processing technologies to convert wood into lumber, composites, paper, and paperboard
• Assessing the effects of increased recycling and advanced conversion technologies on wood supply and demand
• Assessing the economic impact of new recycling and conversion technologies
• Increasing the service life of wood and wood-based materials under adverse end-use conditions
• Lowering costs for constructing and maintaining wood-based housing by increasing the ease of construction, decreasing the need for maintenance, and increasing the performance and durability of wood-based materials

Environmental Research

• Developing nonchlorine bleaching methods for pulp
• Developing nonsulfur chemical pulping methods to produce high-strength pulp fiber
• Converting wood to paper and paperboard using environmentally benign biobased processing technologies
• Using lignocellulosic wood fiber filters to clean contaminated water for watershed restoration, land reclamation, and storm water runoff from point and nonpoint sources
• Drying and preserving wood using environmentally friendly methods
• Developing environmentally friendly disposal methods for postconsumer wood treated with creosote, pentachlorophenol, and chromated copper arsenate (CCA)
• Protecting wood and wood-based materials from decay and insect attack

Sustaining Ecosystems

• Providing utilization options for low-value or underutilized material removed to accomplish forest restoration, reduce fuel loading to prevent catastrophic forest fire, and offset land management costs
• Working with forest managers to develop options for meeting wood use and forest condition objectives
• Identifying the roles of fungi and bacteria in forest ecosystems and nutrient recycling of woody material on forest floors

Social and Economic Vitality

Providing value-added opportunities for local development in rural communities
• Using life-cycle assessment to examine the costs and benefits of wood products and new technologies, from extraction to disposal
• Assisting wood users in the transition to new kinds of wood raw materials

Foundation Research

• Advancing fundamental wood science that allows new and emerging utilization issues and problems to be addressed efficiently and effectively
• Understanding cell wall make up and development in wood
• Investigating the effects of moisture, temperature, and insects on wood and wood-basedmaterial properties
• Understanding how fungi and bacteria attack and metabolize wood and wood-based materials
• Improving the science of wood processing and drying
• Developing performance-based codes and standards for new wood-based materials
• Developing performance-based design criteria for wood structures
• Improving the performance of fasteners and adhesive for joining wood and wood-based material

Public Service -- Using multiple means to communicate research results to the public:

• Research publications
• Technology transfer
• Technical assistance
• Cooperative research efforts
• In-house consultation and identification services
• Educational outreach
• Dissemination of information to groups and individuals