Associations and Organizations in the Forest Products Arena Understanding the Landscape‪.‬

What organizations represent you as a professional in the arena of forest products or as an organization or individual involved in the manufacture, distribution, marketing, or sales of forest products? Who "speaks" for you in the educational, business, political, and professional world -- about your ideas and objectives, needs and wants, and what you as a member of an organization or as an organization itself view as important in the context of forest products and wood science? Do we have a collective forest products voice in the United States -- one that represents us as a community of educators, manufacturers, and businesses? Some would argue that the future of our educational voice in the wood community is at risk, from a decade-long erosion of our university-level academic programs in the United States, a declining or stagnant membership in the two principal organizations that serve forest products academics (the Forest Products Society and the Society of Wood Science and Technology), and with the very recent decline in state and federal support for all university programs. Some would also suggest that the well-organized, well-financed, and large membership of the environmental movement has overwhelmed the voice of the entire wood community in the public arena -- professional societies, manufacturers, and trade associations alike. And some would tell you that the very recent market depression affecting most of our industry is weakening the voice of the industry -- at least temporarily. Ask yourself these simple questions: Who is the voice of forest products in the United States? Who is the voice of forestry in the United States? Who is the voice of the environmental movement in the United States? How do our forest products voices measure up to any other association or organization? Are we moving the collective good of the wood community forward with effective voices?