Louisiana Forest Products Development Center

Director's Message

In the State of Louisiana, the forest industry contributes over 50% of the total value of all agricultural, animal and fish/wildlife commodities. In addition to lumber, plywood, OSB and the production of other primary products, valuable secondary products are also produced such as furniture and kitchen cabinets. In 1994 the LSU Agricultural Center established the Louisiana Forest Products Laboratory (LFPL). In 2003 we changed our name to the Louisiana Forest Products Development Center (LFPDC) to better reflect the breadth of our expertise and client base. The Center, now an integral part of the School of Renewable Natural Resources, provides technical assistance to the primary and value-added processing wood products industries in Louisiana. Since its inception, the LFPDC has made great strides and is currently firmly positioned as one of the most recognized and productive forest products research and outreach centers in the United States.

I'd like to thank you for visiting our website and would like to share with you some of the many activities we are involved in to support forest sector development in Louisiana, the Nation and the World. I hope you are as impressed as I am with the breadth and scope of our expertise and activities. Please feel free to contact us at the Center for more information.

Richard Vlosky
Director, Louisiana Forest Products Development Center

News

LSU AgCenter receives USDA grant for wood-based bioenergy

[July 2010] The LSU AgCenter has been named as a recipient of one of 22 U.S. Department of Agriculture grants supporting agricultural market research and demonstration projects.

The AgCenter award will be used to identify high-potential, wood-based bioenergy business options that can be integrated into business models of forest landowners and wood product manufacturers and distributors in Louisiana, said Richard Vlosky, who will head the Louisiana program.

In addition to Vlosky, who is director of the LSU AgCenter’s Louisiana Forest Products Development Center, the project will include Ramesh Kolluru and Mark Smith with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette-Center for Business and Information Technologies and Charles D’Agostino with the LSU Louisiana Business and Technology Center.

USDA awarded 22 matching grants totaling more than $1.3 million to 18 states under the Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program. The projects will explore new and innovative approaches to marketing U.S. food and agricultural products and to improve the efficiency and performance of the marketing system.

The grants focus on developing agricultural marketing strategies for an array of projects including eight local/regional food projects, two bioenergy projects, a farm-to-school project and a food safety for direct marketers project.

The grant program funds a wide range of applied research projects that address barriers, challenges and opportunities in marketing, transporting and distributing U.S. food and agricultural products domestically and internationally, according to USDA officials.

Vlosky Named to Endowed Professorship

Dr. Rich Vlosky, professor of forest products marketing and director of the Louisiana Forest Products Development Center, has been named to the Crosby Land and Resources, L.L.C. Professorship in Forest Sector Business Development. Continuing a commitment to those institutions that provide education, research and outreach to those in the forest community, Crosby Land and Resources, L.L.C. of Mandeville, La., is pleased to announce the establishment of an endowed professorship in support of the Louisiana Forest Products Development Center. The center, which is in the LSU AgCenter School of Renewable Natural Resources, provides assistance to individuals and companies seeking not only to improve their forestry practices, but also potential new economic opportunities through development of their forest resources. Crosby Land and Resources is the largest family-owned, non-industrial, private timberland company in Louisiana and one of the largest in the South. Operating in Louisiana for the past 65 years and with more than 100 years of family involvement in forestry related enterprises in both Louisiana and Mississippi, it continues today to provide forest resources for one of our state’s largest and most important industries. A fourth-generation family business, it is owned by the Robert H. Crosby Jr., Margaret Crosby Cox, Thomas L. Crosby, Richard C. Crosby and Mary Crosby McDuff families. “Through the LFPDC, we continue to support the LSU Ag Center and the School of Renewable Natural Resources in their efforts to offer assistance to Louisiana forest landowners.” said Robert Crosby.

Dr. Todd Shupe elected Vice-President of the Society of Wood Science and Technology.

Dr. Todd Shupe, a forest products professor at the LSU AgCenter’s Louisiana Forest Products Development Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has been elected Vice President of the Society of Wood Science and Technology (SWST). Shupe will officially assume his new responsibilities at the Society’s annual international convention on June 24 in Boise, Idaho. In 2010, he will assume the role of President-Elect, followed by the the role of president in 2011. The Society of Wood Science and Technology (SWST) is an internationally-recognized professional organization of wood scientists, engineers, marketing specialists and other professionals concerned with science and technology of wood and lignocellulosic materials. Shupe will be the youngest President in the history of the organization, which was founded in 1958. The website for the SWST is: http://www.swst.org

New Publications

Rangika Perera, PhD student and her advisor, Dr. Richard Vlosky, Director, Louisiana Forest Products Development Center, LSU AgCenter, recently published a book on US wood product importing. The citation is: Perera, Rangika and Richard P. Vlosky. 2009. “An Overview of the Wood Product Import sector in the U.S”. VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Dudweiler Landstr. 125 a, D - 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany. 92p. ISBN 978-3-639-13770-5.

--also in: Publications / Working Papers (click titles to view)! (updated 7/19/2010)

Working Paper #88: Potential of Using Poultry Litter as a Feedstock for Energy Production. July 2010. R. Perera, P. Perera, R. Vlosky, P. Darby.

Working Paper #89: A Brief Overview of the U.S. Furniture Industry. July 2010. Pirc, Vlosky.

Check Out These Links!

Irish Forest Industry Web Portal. This website WWW.FORESTRY.IE was established as a portal for the Irish Forest Industry. This website is designed to host information about and for the Irish forest industry. It also offers a webpage service to the forest sector and it co-hosts the now well established Online ITGA Forestry & Timber Directory. (UPDATED: 21June2010)
Winter 2008-2009 Newsletter NOW AVAILABLE
LFPDC Publications List
LFPDC Brochure
LFPDC Wood Durability Laboratory Brochure UPDATED, February 2009
LFPDC Engineering Composite Laboratory
Visit the Louisiana Forest Products Community