Using wood composites as a tool for sustainable forestry

Abstract

This report provides a summary of technical papers presented in Session #90 of the recent IUFRO XXII World Forestry Congress held in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, August 8–13, 2005. Papers in this report include the oral presentations, poster presentations, and panel discussions exploring and providing technical information on the potential adaptability and applicability of using wood–composites technologies to create value-added commodities and new innovative biobased composite products. These presentations reviewed how wood- and bio-fiber-composite technologies allow users to add considerable value to a diverse number of wood- and bio-fiber feedstocks, including small-diameter timber, fast plantation-grown timber, agricultural fiber and biofiber residues, exotic– invasive species, and timber removals of hazardous forest fuels. The presentations showed some possibilities for a distinct advantage for this type of economic development scenario: The application of this type of industrial composite processing technology allows the use of diverse species and an ever-changing quality level of wood and other natural biofiber feedstocks. A fundamental understanding of the relationship between materials, process, and composite performance properties may soon allow us to “control the process on the-fly” to accept any number of input materials and still produce consistent value-added composite products. Once this fundamental understanding is developed, we will truly be able to use biocomposite technologies as a tool to help forest and land managers restore damaged ecosystems and promote sustainable forest management practices.