The U.S. Army tested a cross-laminated timber (CLT) shelter made using thermally modified Coastal Western Hemlock. In the seismic testing in Champaign, Illinois, the shelter reportedly withstood shaking that simulated a 1-250-year earthquake. The testing by the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, in collaboration with the Composite Recycling Technology Center and Washington State University, looked at Advanced Cross-Laminated Timber made from Western Hemlock, a highly economical and accessible timber species that grows prolifically across the Pacific Northwest. The seismic test, as seen in the video below from ABC News, “validated the new types of connectors that the team designed, making sure that occupants inside would be safe during something significant, as we saw, which is equivalent to a 250–500-year event,” said Dr Peter Stynoski, a research civil engineer at the ERDC.