OTTAWA – The Wood Design & Building Awards is inviting entries from North American wood projects for 2021-22. Entries should consist of “building projects that show a wide range of wood product applications and demonstrate an understanding of the special qualities of wood, such as strength, durability, beauty and cost-effectiveness,” states a release from the Canadian Wood Council. A jury consisting of architects from Canada and the U.S. will review all entries based on creativity, appropriate use of wood materials in satisfying client building and site requirements and innovative design. Awards will be given in Honour, Merit and Citation categories and winning projects will be highlighted in a the 2021-22 Celebrating Excellence in Wood Architecture book, a video and the spring/summer edition of Wood Design & Building magazine.
Published in TAPPI JOURNAL, “A guide to eliminating baggy webs” was co-authored by FPInnovations’ Frédéric Parent, Research engineer, and Jean Hamel, FPInnovations VP Industry and Member Relations, as well as by David McDonald, president of JDMcD Consulting Inc. “Paper rolls that give baggy webs are often rejected because they cause problems in printing and converting operations. The causes of bagginess in papermaking can be costly and difficult to correct. Bagginess is caused by an uneven cross-direction (CD) tension profile in the web. The CD tension is not typically measured on paper machines, so we developed a high resolution, off-machine system to do this. We found that the effect of papermaking conditions on CD tension can be summarized by a single equation derived from first principles. …Mills can use the information in this study to understand the origins of baggy webs and identify the changes required to eliminate them.”
The Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) is working to identify, understand, and overcome barriers to wood use. …Surveys have cited the lack of qualified mass timber installers as a key challenge that dissuades developers and designers from choosing or following through with mass timber and thus limits the expansion of mass timber construction in the US. To help solve this issue, the SLB and the USDA Forest Service recently pledged an additional $100,000 each to expand mass timber installation training nationwide. With this funding, WoodWorks is developing construction mock-ups and will launch high-quality, hands-on installer training at training centers in Portland, Boston, New York state, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles in partnership with local carpenter unions. Together, these locations anticipate providing more than 8,500 hours of training annually starting in 2022. The program seeks to… expand to a dozen or more localities nationwide by 2023.
Construction has not yet begun on Canada’s first wheat straw pulping facility, which is to be built on the west side of Regina starting in 2022. But Kelowna-based developer Red Leaf Pulp Limited is already consulting with producers in the area to see about buying their straw. Wheat straw pulp is considered an environmentally friendly alternative to wood pulp, and can be used to make tissues, paper towels, cardboard packaging and other paper products. Joe Hinz, a representative of Red Leaf Pulp, says he is “very excited” about the possibilities this plant will bring. …Hinz says, “we’re going to be pulping wheat and durum straw, so we are not going to have the associated smells with it that you would have with a traditional pulp mill,” he said. “You won’t even know that we are in your neighbourhood, when it comes to the smell.”
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Wisconsin is celebrating the state’s working forests Sunday through Saturday during Forest Products Week. Gov. Tony Evers and President Joe Biden have proclaimed the third week in October as Forest Products Week to recognize forests’ essential role in the environment and economy. 
The future of New York’s skyline is … timber? Building with cross-laminated timber, a type of engineered wood consisting of glued-together panels of lumber, will soon be permitted in the five boroughs. The City Council on Thursday approved extensive changes to the building code, which include allowing the special timber on projects up to 85 feet tall, or six to seven stories. While some buildings in the city have already used the material, they required extensive, separate approvals. The change still leaves the city behind others in the U.S. and light years behind other countries in legalizing timber. In Canada, for one, dozens of such towers have already been built. Earlier this year, the International Code Council, a body whose recommendations are often used as guides for localities, approved the use of timber in buildings of up to 18 stories.
Original Mass Timber Maine (OMT Maine) hired the University of Maine to include Maine-sourced Structural Round Timber (SRT) in a research project that will compare the structural building material to glulam and steel products. The study is designed to understand and compare the costs, capabilities, and carbon impacts of structural materials that could be used to build a hypothetical instructional and research facility. The study’s initial intent was to assess the impacts on budget and carbon footprint of replacing steel and concrete with glulam and cross-laminated timber in the building’s structural system. The study will now also include the use of Maine-sourced SRT as a mass timber option for comparison. OMT Maine expects results from the cost and feasibility study later this year, with the Life Cycle Assessment Report to be released in early 2022.
Nineteen structures and 11 product designs have been shortlisted for the 
