UC Berkeley Researchers Turn Fire-Affected Forests Into Building Materials

As wildfires become more frequent and intense across California, University of California, Berkeley researchers are exploring ways to turn wood from fire-affected forests into useful building materials, ABC7 reported.

At the university’s wood lab, Assistant Professor Paul Mayencourt demonstrated dowel-laminated timber, or DLT, a construction technique that combines smaller pieces of lumber into larger structural panels using wooden dowels.

Associate Professor Dan Sanchez said construction and building operations are responsible for an estimated 40% of carbon dioxide emissions. He said mass timber has a lower carbon footprint than cement and structural steel and can support forest management by creating markets for smaller trees removed to reduce wildfire risk.

“So, for me, the most rewarding part is, really the connection to California forests. Our forests are beautiful, but they’re also really threatened. Wildfire risk is an overwhelming existential problem for the state. And, showing that we can use the byproducts of wildfire risk reduction, like when we thin small trees, and make valuable things out of that rather than just leaving them on the ground,” Sanchez said.

Some lab projects focus on smaller-scale applications, while others have reached industrial production. Mayencourt said Humboldt County-based Mad River Mass Timber has become the first manufacturer of DLT in California, using concepts developed at the Berkeley wood lab.

“That would be something,” Mayencourt said. “Seeing the system used more generally in California would be super amazing because we can definitely use a lot of the trees we have in California and turn into valuable mass timber products in some simple ways.”