Forestry Notes Q&A: Craig Rawlings 08/13/2020
Craig Rawlings has more than 40 years of experience in the forest products industry. He has operated several successful construction and forest product-related businesses, and since 2009, has served as president and CEO of Forest Business Network, which specializes in forest product business news and consultation.
Based in Montana, Rawlings is recognized as one of the nation’s top experts in under-utilized timber and woody biomass. Recently he spent time with NACD Forestry Notes to discuss current wood market conditions and what he sees on the horizon.
Coronavirus has now been part of our daily reality for more than six months. From what you’ve seen so far, what impact has it had on the timber industry and other wood markets?
Well, one bright spot is that the lumber market in the U.S. is at an all-time high due to the volume of home improvement projects (deck repair and replacement, new fences, home office installs, etc.) restaurant remodels, and steady housing starts. Add in high demand for consumer products like toilet paper, and the overall forest product sector is doing exceptionally well compared to other sectors.
The one challenge I am hearing from mill owners is that they can’t find enough workers due to the impact of COVID-19.
In addition to consulting services, Forest Business Network helps track forest industry news and trends. Talk about your audience and how your data is able to help provide insight into markets.
Our audience is very large and diverse and includes the entire forestry sector supply chain that we email Forest Business Network’s free weekly e-newsletter to each Wednesday. Our newsletter covers news from across every sector – forestry, mass timber, sawmills, woody biomass, manufacturers, forest policy and more. Readers use the information to understand latest industry happenings, including mergers and acquisitions, and changes in management. And for newsletter readers like myself that are big users of LinkedIn, we use the articles to feed us leads so we can build our industry connections and customers. The newsletter has been going out since 2002 to over 7,000 subscribers.
The North American Mass Timber State of the Industry Report that we produced in 2019 and 2020 has been very popular as well, and it’s a good example of the kind of content and data we provide. We are working on the 2021 report as we speak, and the free 2020 digital report can be viewed at www.masstimberreport.com.
Looking ahead, list a few areas (or products) where you see great potential in the forest sector.
Forestry companies will continue to innovate and adopt new technology such as engineered wood products, nanofibers for clothing and other products, wood fiber insulation, biofuels, soil amendments and energy fuel.
I believe telling “our” story just as you do with Forestry Notes for the conservation districts is so important.
What one policy change could provide the biggest boost to a healthy, vibrant forest economy?
It’s hard to say what that big boost might be, but we’ve had some wins on that front. The Collaborative Forest Land Restoration Program (CFLRP) has been a highly successful federal program, and the president signing the bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act into law will be especially helpful for forest health activity and conservation districts as a whole. Saying that, I do believe we need federal support for research and development that helps small landowners and conservation districts identify markets for small-diameter trees and test new harvesting equipment and methods.
Forest Business Network organizes the biennial International Mass Timber Conference, which is scheduled for next spring in Portland. Talk about your event, and also how your Board is advancing meeting preparations in these uncertain times.
We started the International Mass Timber Conference in 2016 as one of the only multi-day events in the world focused on the entire supply chain for mass timber. It’s grown from 500 people who attended the first conference to what would have been an event with 2,000 attendees and almost 100 exhibitors this last spring (before the cancellation due to COVID-19).
We’re extremely proud of this conference and its passionate customer base and look forward to growing it even further, despite recent challenges. Our steering committee will hold its first planning meeting this September, and we will need to figure out how we hold a live event in 2021. But reality will likely dictate that we plan and develop a hybrid conference that is both a live, in-person event, and a virtual/digital platform.
Would Forest Business Network explore organizing another Small Log Conference at some point?
Yes, we’ve considered that, but it probably wouldn’t be a standalone conference. We’d most likely hold it in conjunction with our International Mass Timber Conference that we co-produce with WoodWorks. The mills are an integral supplier for mass timber product manufacturers, so it’s a natural fit. Also, mills are closely looking at markets like mass timber and other engineered wood products, especially since these types of products can use lumber produced from small-diameter logs.
What are the ways you believe conservation districts and state associations can help support their local wood markets?
I see that Will Novy-Hildesley, CEO of the North American Forest Partnership, aka #forestproud, was a recent contributor to Forestry Notes. I believe telling “our” story just as you do with Forestry Notes for the conservation districts is so important. And I believe it is equally important to get the message out to the industry and general public that Will and his team at #forestproud have been doing this very thing for the past few years.