WWPA concluded its 2026 Annual Meeting on April 14th at the Hotel Indigo in Vancouver, Washington. The three-day event brought together industry leaders and members for a series of informative sessions, networking opportunities, and committee meetings.

A highlight of the meeting was the Master Lumberman Awards. The award recognizes outstanding lumber grading and quality control professionals in the Western lumber industry. It is a prestigious honor with only a select few achieving Master Lumberman status each year.

WWPA is now seeking nominations for the 2026 Master Lumberman honors. The awards will be presented at the Association's Annual Meeting, April 13, 2026. Master Lumberman is the industry's highest career achievement recognition for lumber manufacturing and quality control employees working in Western sawmills. Member companies have until December 31, 2025 to submit Master Lumberman nominations to WWPA.

WWPA has named industry veteran Jeff Keller as Association President. Keller brings in a leadership philosophy and a strong background in legislative and regulatory work within the industry. Keller succeeds Ray Barbee, who passed away in March 2025.

WWPA has updated the publication DESIGN VALUES FOR U.S. and CANADIAN SPECIES GROUP COMBINATIONS to the recent revisions of design values for Hem-Fir (North). 

In April 2025, the National Lumber Grades Authority in Canada lowered the design values for Hem-Fir (North) as the result of their routine monitoring and assessment process. These values are reflected in the base values, size adjusted values and span tables shown in this updated publication.

The 2026 WWPA Annual Meeting will be held April 12 through 14 in 
Vancouver Washington at the Hotel Indigo Vancouver Downtown.

The 2026 event will include the Welcome Reception and Exchange Show, 
Quality Standards & Technical Services Committee Meeting, 
Master Lumberman & Safety Awards, Speakers Session and Industry Reception and Exchange Show. 

For questions about the WWPA Annual Meeting email WWPA at info@wwpa.org.

WWPA concluded its 2025 Annual Meeting on April 15th at the Hotel Indigo in Vancouver, Washington. The three-day event brought together industry leaders and members for a series of informative sessions, networking opportunities, and committee meetings.

A highlight of the meeting was the Master Lumberman Awards. The award recognizes outstanding lumber grading and quality control professionals in the Western lumber industry. It is a prestigious honor with only a select few achieving Master Lumberman status each year.

Registration is open for the 2025 WWPA Annual Meeting, April 13-15 at the Hotel Indigo, Vancouver Washington.

To register for the meeting CLICK HERE. To reserve a room visit the Hotel Indigo Vancouver Downtown website. Use group code W1P to get the group rate. The deadline for group rate is March 12, 2025 or until the room block is sold out.

The 2025 event will include the Welcome Reception and Exchange Show,
Quality Standards & Technical Services Committee Meeting,
Master Lumberman & Safety Awards, Speakers Session and Industry Reception and Exchange Show.

Lumber demand from single-family home construction and remodeling is volatile - the last few years alone have seen major swings from the COVID pandemic in 2020 to high interest rates last year. To minimize the impact of that volatility on the wood products industry, the work of the Softwood Lumber Board to expand and diversify softwood lumber demand into commercial construction is significant.

The SLB continues to defend share of market in single-family and outdoor applications while pursuing new market opportunities in non-residential and multifamily construction. To maximize those opportunities, the SLB invests in Education, the American Wood Council, Think Wood, and WoodWorks to influence key decision makers for these building types and convert more projects to wood.

Click Here to continue reading the Softwood Lumber Board article.

One-hundred-seventy exhibitors have signed up for the upcoming Timber Processing & Energy Expo (TP&EE) to be held September 25-27 at the Portland Exposition Center in Portland, Ore. They'll showcase their technologies and supplies to lumbermen on 45,000 square feet of booth space in Hall E.

Attendee registration opens July 15 on the timberprocessingandenergyexpo.com web site. Admission is free to anybody who registers prior to the beginning of the show.

TP&EE will once again feature its massive Beer Garden, the presentation ceremony for the 2024 Timber Processing Person of the Year, and the Sawmill Productivity & Efficiency Conference, details of which will be released in June.

TP&EE continues it Preferred Partners program, which is an alliance with several industry groups to support promotions and attendance. Western Wood Products Association is once again one of the Preferred Partners and will have an exhibit at TP&EE.

The event is produced by Hatton-Brown Expositions and hosted by Timber Processing magazine.

Softwood lumber is a key piece of the housing solution

To make housing more affordable across the United States, a variety of housing types are needed - especially multifamily. Here's how the SLB is working to secure the industry's position in medium - and high-density residential construction.

Single-family residential construction and renovations have long been the primary market for the lumber industry. But single-family construction alone will not meet the demand for housing in the United States - nor will it be a driver for incremental growth in lumber demand.

A shortage of housing is causing major affordability issues across the country. The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University's 2024 America's Rental Housing report found that a record-high 22.4 million renter households spent more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities, more than at any other time in history, as rent increases have outpaced income gains for decades.

Click Here to continue reading the SLB article.

WWPA concluded its 2024 Annual Meeting on April 16th at the Hotel Indigo in Vancouver, Washington. The three-day event brought together industry leaders and members for a series of informative sessions, networking opportunities, and committee meetings.

A highlight of the event was a visit from U.S. Congressman Bruce Westerman, (4th District, Arkansas), during the WWPA Industry Breakfast. Westerman spoke about his background in forestry and about the future of the lumber industry. The audience also received a surprise visit from U.S. Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (3rd District, Washington) who shared some of her insights working with the logging community in her district.

Another highlight of the meeting was the Master Lumberman Awards. The award recognizes outstanding lumber grading and quality control professionals in the Western lumber industry. It is a prestigious honor with only a select few achieving Master Lumberman status each year.

Registration is open for the 2024 WWPA Annual Meeting, April 14-16 at the Hotel Indigo, Vancouver Washington.

To register for the meeting CLICK HERE. To reserve a room visit the Hotel Indigo Vancouver Downtown website. Use group code WWP to get the group rate. The deadline for group rate is March 14, 2023 or until the room block is sold out.