This article presents information on employment and payroll generated per unit volume of timber or wood fiber processed by the various manufacturing sectors of Montana's forest products industry for 19871989. Average employment ranged from a high of 117 workers per million cubic feet (mmcf) of wood fiber processed at house log plants, to a low of 12 workers per mmcf at stud mills. Employment-co...

Torrefaction is a thermo-chemical process that reduces the moisture content of wood and transforms it into a brittle, char-type material. The thermo-chemical process can reduce the mass of wood by 20-30% resulting in a denser, higher-valued product that can be transported more economically than traditional wood chips. Through torrefaction, wood may retain 90% of the energy value. This energy de...

Sapstain is considered a defect that must be removed from processed wood. So far, research in automatic wood inspection systems has been mostly limited to dealing with knots. In this paper, we extract a number of colour and texture features from wood pictures. These features are then assessed using machine learning techniques via feature selection, visualization, and finally classification. Apa...

The emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), a phloem-feeding insect from Asia, was identified in 2002 as the cause of widespread ash (Fraxinus sp.) mortality in southeastern Michigan and Essex County, Ontario. Most larvae overwinter as nonfeeding prepupae in the outer sapwood or thick bark of large trees. In a series of studies, we evaluated effects of grindi...

Illegal logging is widely recognized as a major economic problem and one of the causes of environmental degradation. Increasing awareness of its negative effects has fostered a wide range of proposals to combat it by major international conservation groups and political organizations. Following the 2008 US legislation which prohibits the import of illegally harvested wood and wood products, the...

A resilient soft liner (RSL) has been used in processed complete dentures but controlling its thickness has always been a challenge because of uneven reduction of the denture’s intaglio surface. Use of a thermoplastic vacuum-formed template and an endodontic K-file, as guides, for the reduction of a processed mandibular complete denture to receive RSL is described in the present report. A proce...