Industry Brief #2 - Capacity Is Resilience

What Matters for Urban & Salvaged Wood

Week of July 6, 2026

Federal policy is moving quickly, but almost all of that movement continues to focus on growing, harvesting, and using traditionally sourced timber. Meanwhile, millions of tons of urban and salvaged wood generated every year across the United States continues remain largely invisible in federal, state and local policy despite representing one of the country's largest untapped domestic wood resources.

That creates both a challenge and an opportunity.

Several major federal initiatives now underway will shape how wood is measured, funded, transported, and used for years to come. None of them currently recognize urban and salvaged wood as a distinct part of America's wood supply. That means the decisions being made today will determine whether this resource continues to be treated primarily as waste or becomes recognized as infrastructure that supports local manufacturing, carbon storage, workforce development, and local economic resilience.

The encouraging news is that much of this policy is still being written. The opportunity to influence it remains open.

This brief focuses on the federal actions that matter most to the urban and salvaged wood industry, why they matter, and where engagement today can produce lasting change.

Housing Policy

What Changed

Congress has advanced the most significant federal housing legislation in decades, with a strong emphasis on increasing housing production, expanding modular and factory-built construction, and reducing barriers to building.

More construction means more demand for wood products.

Why It Matters

While this legislation is expected to increase demand for wood, it continues to assume that supply comes primarily from traditionally harvested forests.

Urban and salvaged wood is not recognized as part of that conversation.

That is a missed opportunity.

Every year, communities remove millions of trees because of storms, insects, disease, development, aging infrastructure, and public safety. Much of that material can become lumber, mass timber components, architectural products, flooring, furniture, biochar, engineered wood products, and other high-value materials. As demand for wood grows, this existing domestic resource should become part of the national supply strategy.

What We Should Do

The implementation of this legislation will continue through federal agencies over the coming months and years. As guidance develops, the urban and salvaged wood industry should advocate for recovered wood to be recognized alongside traditionally harvested timber wherever federal housing policy addresses sustainable building materials, modular construction, mass timber, or domestic wood supply.

Housing policy should recognize all responsible sources of wood, not just those coming directly from forests.

The Farm Bill

The Best Opportunity to Recognize Urban and Salvaged Wood

What Changed

Congress is developing the next Farm Bill, and with it comes one of the best opportunities in years to permanently recognize urban and salvaged wood within federal forestry policy.

Current draft language strengthens several programs that already support wood utilization, including the Wood Innovations Grant Program, Community Wood Facilities Grant Program, and modernization of the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program. These programs influence how wood resources are measured, funded, researched, and developed across the country.

Yet one significant gap remains.

Nowhere does the legislation clearly recognize urban and salvaged wood as its own resource category.

Why It Matters

Federal policy cannot effectively support what it does not define or measure.

Every year, communities across the United States remove millions of trees because of storms, insects, disease, age, development, utility work, and public safety. Collectively, this represents one of the nation's largest available wood resources, yet most federal policy continues to treat these trees as municipal waste rather than part of America's domestic wood supply.

That omission affects everything that follows.

If urban and salvaged wood is not identified in federal policy, it is less likely to be measured, researched, funded, tracked, or considered when new wood utilization programs are created. The industry continues to compete for recognition within programs that were originally designed around traditional forestry rather than recovered wood.

Recognition is not about creating new programs.

It is about ensuring existing programs reflect the full wood economy. Federal investment should support every responsibly recovered wood resource capable of creating jobs, storing carbon, strengthening local manufacturing, and reducing disposal costs.

What We Should Ask For

The changes needed are straightforward.

Congress should explicitly recognize urban, salvaged, and reclaimed wood as eligible feedstocks wherever federal wood utilization programs support traditional timber.

Forest Inventory and Analysis should include urban and salvaged wood as part of the nation's measured wood resource. Material that is never counted rarely becomes part of long-term policy or investment decisions.

Wood Innovations Grants and Community Wood Facilities Grants should clearly identify recovered wood as an eligible priority. Communities already generate this material every day. Federal policy should help them recover its value rather than simply manage its disposal.

Finally, federal reports evaluating the future of wood products, including mass timber and advanced wood manufacturing, should recognize that hardwoods recovered from urban and salvaged sources can play an important role alongside traditionally harvested softwoods.

None of these recommendations require creating an entirely new program.

They simply ensure that existing federal investments recognize the full range of wood resources already available across the country.

Why This Matters Right Now

This is one of the few moments when policy can still be shaped before it becomes law.

Once the Farm Bill is finalized, opportunities to make these changes become far more limited. Engaging now gives communities, businesses, researchers, and industry organizations the greatest opportunity to ensure urban and salvaged wood becomes part of the national conversation instead of remaining an overlooked resource.

Federal Capacity Is Changing

Why It Matters for Urban and Salvaged Wood

What Changed

The federal government is restructuring the agencies and programs that support forestry, research, and wood utilization. At the same time, proposed budget reductions would significantly reduce investment in research and technical assistance while shifting how some forestry programs are managed.

These changes affect much more than agency organization.They affect how wood resources are measured, how new markets are developed, and where future federal investment will be directed.

Why It Matters

The urban and salvaged wood industry depends on more than grants. It depends on good data, credible research, consistent standards, and technical support that help communities and businesses recover more value from the trees they already remove every day.

Programs such as Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA), the Forest Products Laboratory, and State, Private, and Tribal Forestry provide much of that foundation. They help quantify available resources, evaluate new products and technologies, support local implementation, and demonstrate the economic and environmental value of higher-value wood utilization.

If these programs shrink or change direction without recognizing urban and salvaged wood, our industry risks becoming even less visible in future federal policy.

Capacity is about far more than staffing.

It is about maintaining the ability to measure, understand, and invest in the nation's complete wood supply.

What We Should Ask For

Federal support should continue for the programs that build knowledge and markets, not just those that support timber production.

That means protecting Forest Inventory and Analysis and ensuring it includes urban and salvaged wood as part of the national resource inventory.

It means maintaining research through the Forest Products Laboratory and other federal research programs that continue to demonstrate the environmental and economic benefits of recovering wood for its highest and best use.

It also means preserving support for State, Private, and Tribal Forestry, which provides many of the partnerships and technical resources that communities rely on to improve urban forest management and wood utilization.

These investments do more than support research.

They provide the data, science, and technical capacity needed to make better decisions, strengthen local manufacturing, reduce disposal costs, and expand markets for recovered wood.

The Bigger Picture

For decades, federal forestry policy has focused primarily on growing and harvesting trees.

Urban and salvaged wood requires a broader view.

Communities already produce this resource every day. The challenge is building the systems that recognize its value, measure its contribution, and support its recovery.

Protecting the federal programs that provide those capabilities is essential if urban and salvaged wood is going to become a permanent part of America's wood economy.