Oregon Mass Timber Coalition Awarded $41.4 Million Grant to Modernize Oregon’s Forest Products Industry

The Oregon Mass Timber Coalition has been awarded $41.4 million by the US Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) to modernize and boost the forest products industry in Oregon. The funds are provided by the Build Back Better Regional Challenge, a competitive federal grant program.

The Oregon Mass Timber Coalition aims to bring down the cost of home building, provide good jobs and restore forest health. The projects funded as part of this award include working with forest-dependent rural communities to grow access to wood fiber, facilitate a wood-based products workforce development program, provide resources to university R&D programs conducting design and prototyping of new construction materials, and assist state agencies in creating a favorable regulatory framework to accommodate modular mass timber homes in rural and wildlife-impacted communities.

R&D projects by the University of Oregon and Oregon State University will lead the design and prototyping of new construction materials and products, and public testing facilities will certify that developed products meet fire and acoustic codes, paving the way for production and sale. Infrastructure improvements at the Port of Portland will create a site suitable for private investment in a Mass Timber Campus which will manufacture housing at scale, and the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development will ensure planning and development codes are primed to accommodate modular mass timber homes in rural and wildlife-impacted communities. EDA funds will also support a workforce development project that partners with industry, workforce boards, and labor organizations to provide training in industries related to these new wood-based products.