§7655b Forestry Products Advanced Utilization Research

Summary

Create a forestry and forest-products research and extension program. It must develop and share science-based tools for forests, landowners, managers, and wood-product makers. It must fund research to improve wood quality (like lumber strength and grade yield), make new engineered wood products and renewable energy from wood, and help keep timberland healthy, sustainable, and profitable. It must run demonstrations and technology transfer to show wood’s benefits as a green building material, including life-cycle studies. It must also support projects to improve product standards and valuation, on-forest management for better lumber quality and value, and conversion and manufacturing efficiency, productivity, and long-term profitability (including marketing). The Secretary must award competitive grants to carry out this work. Grants should favor multistate, multiinstitutional, or multidisciplinary teams; groups that share results with producers, industry, policymakers, and the public; and groups with proven experience and capacity. Grants must follow the requirements in paragraphs (4), (7), (8), and (11)(B) of subsection (b) of section 3157 and may not last more than 10 years. The work must be coordinated with the Forest Service, including the Forest Products Laboratory, and other appropriate agencies of the Department. Each year the Secretary must report to the House and Senate Agriculture Committees on the demonstration research, the number of Forest Service buildings using wood as the primary structural material, and Forest Service investments in green building and wood promotion. Congress authorized $7,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2014 through 2023, and the Secretary should, when practical, match those funds with money available under section 1646 of title 16.