Old fight rekindled between environmentalists and loggers over Trump executive order on timber
The buzz of saw teeth and scent of crushed pine needles filled the air as Roy Blackburn walked up a muddy path tucked away in the Willamette National Forest, invisible from the forest service road below. He climbed into the cabin of his TimberPro 830C forwarder and began picking up felled trees that had been stripped of their branches. Sled-sized slabs of bark rained down as he hoisted tree after tree through the air and stacked them on the back of a trailer.
Tyler Freres, vice president of sales for Freres Engineered Wood, visits a logging site in the Willamette National Forest on May 20, 2025. The forest spans nearly 1.7 million acres, larger than the state of Delaware. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News Digital)
Wood Products Manufacturer Automates to Meet Demand
Located in Lyons, OR, about 60 miles due south of Portland, Freres Engineered Wood is a family-run business that has been making sustainable wooden building products since 1922. Following the Oregon Forest Practices Act, the company uses scientifically supported methods to sustainably harvest and replant the Douglas Fir trees on 17,000 acres of timberland. The company is among the most responsible forest stewards in the country, earning certification from the American Tree Farm System, as well as the support of many loyal customers and surrounding communities.
A pair of robots feed panels into the cutting system. Each robot picks and lifts a panel with a specially designed end-of-arm tool. Photo Courtesy Fanuc America Corp.
Wood Wizardry in Oregon: Innovation Raises the Roof for PDX Terminal
Drones, self-propelled modular transporters and a curtain wall that really does hang off the roof like a curtain are all notable technologies that made installing an 18-million-lb timber roof possible at Portland International Airport. Of equal weight is the emphasis on full-scale sourcing of the timber and representing the Pacific Northwest’s residents, history and geography. Slated for a 2025 opening, the revamp of PDX’s Terminal Core (TCORE) nearly doubles the size of the main terminal—within the existing footprint—and creates a modern layout for better operations and passenger experience. Some 1.2 million sq ft of the existing TCORE is being renovated, while adding some 400,000 sq ft by repurposing space formerly occupied by two aircraft gates into a “Western Expansion.”
The fabricator had never provided beams of such size, officials say.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF HOFFMAN SKANSKA
News Radio 1120 KPNW
Company President Rob Freres was interviewed about the Oregon Board of Forestry’s 2024 Habitat Conservation Plan, which was recently adopted by the board. The plan will scale back logging west of the Cascade Mountain Range for the next 70 years.
State’s first passive house school building opens
This school year, students in the BushSchool’s Upper School are takingclasses in the first passive house schoolbuilding to be completed in the state.The new upper school was finished inMay and took approximately 18months to build. It is designed byMithun and built by Exxel Pacific.
The passive house building, located onthe private school’s Madison Valleycampus, totals 20,000 square feet andconsists of ten classrooms and casualbreak-out areas on two upper levels,and a basement level with a 400-seatmultipurpose room with pre-functionspace. The three-story building alsohas a student lounge, student/facultycollaboration center, administrativeoffices and a faculty work room.
A transparent student life center and accessible entry porchwelcomes students to the upper school.
The Climate Economy: TallWood Design Institute director on how mass timber is taking root in Oregon
Mass timber has carried a burden in Oregon since the middle of the last decade, when it began to be promoted as a sustainable building-material alternative to steel and concrete and their
hefty greenhouse-gas emissions footprints, and as a catalyst to revive the long-suffering forest economy.
Post $40M investment, Freres Engineered Wood’s alternative product business grows
Freres Engineered Wood — formerly known as Freres Lumber Co. — made its first mass plywood panel in 2017 after investing $40 million into developing the engineered wood product, including building a 182,000-square-foot manufacturing facility.
FRERES CELEBRATES CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY
Lyons, Ore.-based Freres Lumber Co., now doing business as Freres Engineered Wood, is celebrating its centennial year, marking a century of transformative growth and positive impact on the wood products industry, clients, employees, and its surrounding communities. Freres celebrates this monumental milestone by unveiling its new brand and logo which commemorate Freres’ longstanding history while reflecting its commitment to innovation and advancements as it looks forward to the next 100 years.
Microsoft selects Freres Lumber, ACT biochar CO2 removal project for Carbon Removal Program
ACT, the leading provider of custom market-based solutions for reducing carbon footprints, and Freres Lumber Co., a premier engineered food products manufacturing company, today announced that Microsoft selected their Biochar CO2 Removal Project for its 2022 Carbon Removal Program.
Founded in 2009, ACT helps companies and organizations around the world reduce their carbon footprint by backing high-impact climate projects that generate renewable certificates and carbon credits. Microsoft has agreed to purchase the carbon removal credits generated by the project, and Freres has committed to investing part of the sales proceeds to research and development around biochar production – among other sustainability initiatives.
