Emporium Rotary Club
This week, Rotarian Chris Andrews spoke to our club about the PA Forest Product Association, of which she recently became a board member.
The PFPA originally began as the Hardwood Lumber Manufacturing Association in the 1980.
The HLMA was created by sawmill owners who decided to work together to try to make beneficial changes to laws and regulations within their industry.
Over the years, the HMLA expanded to include members from other sectors of the industry - loggers, foresters, secondary manufacturers such as cabinet makers, and more - and in 2003, they formally changed their name to the PA Forest Product Association.
The original goal of the group still continues today through the PFPA, by collaborating on ideas and issues as well as lobbying in Harrisburg for legislative changes.
They also help within the industry for some of the more challenging tasks such as easements, bonding, permitting, etc.
Chris also shared a few facts about the lumber industry:
- It is around a $39 billion industry in Pennsylvania that provides over 60,000 jobs in PA.
- Over 1 billion board feet are produced in PA annually.
The lumber industry overall also focuses heavily on sustainability and environmental responsibility.
Chris also pointed to Allegheny Hardwood Utilization Group as another resource for the lumber industry in our region.
AHUG helps to send some of the Emporium Hardwoods employees to various trainings such as lumber grading classes.
You may recognize AHUG from our Rotary Day last year as they provided an educational activity for the students to identify trees and how to scale logs.
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