(07/31/24) BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU AgCenter researcher Richard Vlosky has helped secure $300,000 in funding for a project to support a regional mass timber supply chain connecting underrepresented populations and communities in the South with consumers and developers along the Eastern Seaboard and Mid-Atlantic.

Vlosky, professor and director of the Louisiana Forest Products Development Center in the LSU School of Renewable Natural Resources, is part of a team that brought in the 2024 U.S. Forest Service Wood Innovations Program Grant. The $300,000 grant, leveraged by $300,000 in match, will be led by the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, together with Emerson Collective, a social impact investing organization, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund and the LSU AgCenter.

“The outcome of this project will be the foundation for the development of an equitable, southern-sourced mass timber supply chain,” said Teal Edelen, program officer with the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities.

Vlosky’s team will conduct an analysis of the current supply chain in the South, the nascent and developing demand for mass timber building materials in the Mid-Atlantic and Eastern Seaboard and identify the barriers and challenges inhibiting the growth of the value chain.

According to Vlosky, equity and inclusion will be intrinsic in each element of this project and guide the team in all project activities to ensure new opportunities created in this emerging market are accessible to underserved communities.

“Members of traditionally excluded, minority communities that own or control forests, and members of communities along the potential value chain should be provided the opportunity to participate, learn, invest and benefit from a new, possibly large market for regionally sourced mass timber products,” he said.

The team will also identify African American forest owners, foresters, sawyers and other potential participants who are currently underrepresented within mass timber supply chains. Additionally, the grant team will seek end-use developers committed to being buyers of these sources of supply.

Prioritizing equity and inclusiveness, Vlosky’s primary focus will be to conduct market analysis of the investment potential of mass timber constructed from southern yellow pine. Groups to be included in this research include architects, nonresidential builders, civil, architectural and construction engineers and softwood lumber manufacturing facilities.

“Ultimately, this project will result in the linkage of the economic fortunes of our rural forest communities with the construction, repair and elevation of urban neighborhoods throughout the Eastern Seaboard,” Vlosky said.