International

U.S. SOFTWOOD INDUSTRY: A GLOBAL LEADER IN SUSTAINABILITY

The U.S. has more trees today than 70 years ago. In fact, over 1 billion seedlings are planted in the U.S. every year – the equivalent of 2.7 million trees every single day of the year. Modern forest management ensures not only that felled trees are replaced, but that every year more wood is grown in U.S. forests than is harvested.

Environmental Stewardship

The Carbon Benefits of Softwoods

As trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and release oxygen (O2) back into the air. Softwood products store much of this carbon indefinitely. In the case of buildings, the carbon is kept out of the atmosphere for the lifetime of the structure—or longer if the softwood is reclaimed and used to manufacture other products.

  • As carbon reduction becomes increasingly important to building activity, wood’s compelling environmental benefits are helping to make it today’s building material of choice:
  • It is the only mainstream construction material that is renewable and produced using solar energy.
  • It has better insulation properties than other building materials.
  • Trees require less energy (meaning less CO2 emissions) to harvest and convert into finished products than any other construction material.
  • Wood is reusable, recyclable, can be used as biomass fuel and is biodegradable.
  • Wood is better for the environment than fossil fuel-intensive materials such as steel or concrete in terms of embodied energy, air, and other environmental impact categories.

Industry Photographs

Plant Tour: Woodgrain Lumber

Former Boise Cascade mill. Woodgrain purchased the site, shut it down and re tooled it for our needs. Installed a state of the art hew saw from Europe, new planning and stacking/sorter.  Wood is sourced locally mostly Idaho and Oregon. We make studs from fir as well as higher grade lumber for the millwork industry.

Plant Tour: Woodgrain Doors

Nampa is home to the Woodgrain Doors division which oversees operations in locally, Eagan, MN and Los Angeles, Chile. The Nampa facility was an acquisition in May of 1985 Raw materials are sourced both domestically and internationally to construct true stile and rail doors from a variety of species. The plant leverages vertical integration of Woodgrain using the resources from other local and international facilities. 350k sq ft between 7 buildings. The facility is geared more to specialty doors. We also distribute doors out of the Nampa facility.

American Softwoods Video

News