Forest Products Laboratory Virtual Tour Preview

The Forest Product Laboratory is the Forest Service’s only federally funded national wood utilization research laboratory. For over 100 years, our research has touched the daily lives of people across the country as we look at ways to use the Nation’s wood resources wisely and efficiently, while keeping forests healthy.

With over 60 research scientists and 150 support staff, we work with corporations, universities, and state governments from across the country and internationally, collaborating on projects that drive the transition to a renewable bio-economy. The Lab is responsible for many of today’s wood-based technologies, including:

• wood preservatives,
• glulam beams,
• oriented strandboard, and
• fiber-based packaging.

Early research highlights include:

• Reducing timber demand for railroad ties by 75% through preservatives research,
• Increasing average lumber yield per log from 25% to 60%,
• Wood frame technology used in over 90% of our Nation's homes,
• Designing and constructing the Nation's first prefabricated home

On this tour, we invite you to explore behind-the-scenes research happening at the lab, meet some of our scientists and staff, and learn more about wood products you might find in your day-to-day life. Navigate tour stops from the arrows on screen, or from the menu icon to the top right.

Access to in-house trades expertise makes the Forest Products Lab unique compared with other research facilities. Woodcrafters, machinists, electricians, HVAC experts, welders and other trades experts assist scientists by creating custom components for research projects. Much like the science in the research labs, these projects involve puzzle solving and trial-and-error to produce effective results.

"It's the greatest job in the world, really", says Jose Gonzalez, woodcrafter at the Lab. "I enjoy it, so it's not work."

The Center for Wood Anatomy Research is one of the oldest research groups at the Forest Products Laboratory. This center manages the xylaria, or scientific wood collection, and conducts wood anatomy research.

The Forest Products Laboratory Library provides access to scientific literature, bibliographic databases and interlibrary loan services to support Forest Service employees. The National Forest Service Library program, based at the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Fort Collins, CO, includes specialized library branches at the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, WI, and the International Institute of Tropical Forestry in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The Forest Products Laboratory Library is also open to the public for reference inquiries and assistance accessing Forest Service research. General inquiries may be sent to SM.FS.FSLib@usda.gov. The library is available to walk-in visitors by appointment.

• The Library's national collections include all subjects related to North American & tropical forestry, forest health, and natural resource management
• The Lab library is also a field office of the National Agricultural Library
• In total, the library houses over 500,000 books, 7,000+ journals, 20+ databases, and 20,000+ digitized items!

The building sciences team studies how changes in heat and moisture affect wood, and the ways we can mitigate these effects. The Lab has many ways to test moisture and temperature dynamics, from precise instruments for small-scale work to the Chamber for Analytic Research on Wall Assemblies Exposed to Simulated Weather (CARWASh) for entire building walls.

“People think fire is a really easy topic” because we use fire so often in our everyday lives, says scientist Kara Yedinak. However, fire science is a rapidly growing field with many active areas of research. The Forest Products Laboratory Fire Lab, founded in 1934, is one of four fire labs in the Forest Service across the country. The lab collaborates with many external partners to develop testing methods and experiments to study both fire in the natural environment and built environment.

Research Areas

• Fire Behavior: Many factors influence fire, including the type of fuel, available oxygen, and transmission of heat. Researchers at the Lab measure how wood changes as it burns and use the results to develop models that can help predict fire behavior.
• Char formation: ‘Char rate’ refers to the depth and speed that a material burns when exposed to fire. Char rate is a key part of calculating the fire resistance of structural wood elements in buildings. Studying char rate under different conditions ensures that buildings made with wood stay safe during fires and applies to bridges, railroad ties, and other wood infrastructure.
• Wildland Urban Interface: Researchers at the Lab study methods of monitoring fires and evaluate treatments of exterior wood products to create better fire-hardening methods for individual structures. This work contributes to protecting communities in the Wildland Urban Interface, a term for places where human development meets natural areas. Find out more about the Wildland Urban Interface here.

One of the best ways to extend our timber supply and meet demands for wood products is to improve the durability of wood already in use. We can make wood last longer through chemical treatments, using durable wood species or modified wood, and designing structures with robust moisture management and maintenance schedules. Researchers in Wood Durability and Protection test wood for long-term performance and explore wood decay processes caused by microorganisms and arthropods (mainly insects). Their research helps inform building codes, treatment specifications and standards.

Unlike concrete or steel, the strength of wood depends on the species, grade, temperature, relative humidity, direction of force, and other variables. The Engineering Mechanics and Remote Sensing Laboratory (EMRSL) conducts physical and mechanical tests on a wide range of materials, building systems, and structures to inform the development of building codes and structural design for wood products.

At the Forest Products Lab, researchers are developing products made from undervalued materials such as wood from forest thinning projects, lignin, a byproduct of the paper industry, or other natural fibers. Below are just a few examples of how our scientists are transforming waste products into sustainable packaging, bioremediation tools and other applications. Creating products from undervalued materials contributes to a more sustainable economy.

The pilot plant provides space for researchers to scale up their experiments from a lab bench and test products that contribute to a more sustainable economy. Researchers produce cellulose nanomaterials and test paper and packaging materials with the goal of increasing the use of undervalued wood resources and finding sustainable alternatives to fossil fuel-based products.