NLMA Spurs $1,838,000 Campaign To Increase Wood Consumpfion

During the Annual Meeting of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association, the National Wood Promotion Committee of NLMA approved a $1,838,000 budget for next year, in order to carry on its campaign for increasing the tuse of wood by American consumers.

The Board of Directors adopted a number of resolutions, "included moves to increase industry efforts to reduce the number of lumber grades and to standardize grade names, a'.rd to undertake the development of improved exterior fi^rish performance on wood through research. Another resolution was to urge the U.S. Department of Commerce to explain to foreign buyers or prospective buyers that this nation is actually growing more timber than it is using 'and there is no American timber famine or lumber shortage n'hich would impair our ability to supply lumber and wood p'.-oducts to other countries.

Other resolutions adopted were to create a special committee to consider pertinent matters relating to working stresses and design standards for lumber, and to authorize the issuance of a 1962 edition of the National Design Speci{ication after review of proposed changes is completed by the Technical Advisory Committee in Tanuary.

The NLMA policy on wilderness legislation was revised to state affirmatively and clearly that the lumber industry recognizes and is not opposed tb wilderness use of federal lands, but at the same time urging that a Wilderness System should not be established by law without full Congrcssional review.

In an effort to alert the nation to the dangers present in the Administration-sponsored Water Resources Planning Act, the NLMA staff was directed to warn the forest industries, the federated associations and the Association of State Foresters of the "danger that federal control over forest manag'ement on state and private lands may be attempted in the guise of water control legislation."

The Board of Directors then authorized the NLMA President Arthur Temple, Jr. "to appoint an Executive Council on Federal Timber Supply to develop and recommend to the President plans and coordinated actions designed to resolve federal timber sales problems."

In regard to the Administration's proposed "modernization" of the public land disposal laws the lumber industry stated that "any revision in the Nation's public land disposal laws should include provision for studies of : 1) Public domain lands to determine which are qualified for private or,r'nership; 2) Exchanges to block up both private and public holdings; and 3) Disposition of lands to the States for parks, state forests, and other state purposes."

A highlight of the meeting was the dedication, on Monday, of the association's new Washington headquarters, the Forest Industries Building. The eight-story edifice contains more than 100,00 board feet of lumber in the paneling, floors and ceilings. Nineteen species of wood, from all the major forest areas of the United States. have been used in the building.