WoodDigest.com |

Driven to educate the next generation of wood products designers about underutilized hardwood species and to offer them the opportunity to gain hands-on learning experience designing and making wood products, the 2008 National College Student Design Contest for Wood Products competition touted seven Eastern hardwood species as part of the The Under Utilized Species Project. Such species include: beech, sycamore, black gum/tupelo, sweet gum, hackberry and wormy red maple.

Large forest supply volumes, combined with low market demand, allow landowners and mills to cost-effectively offer these minor species.

The grant-funded project was sponsored by the United States Forest Service’s Wood Education and Resource Center (WERC) where the mission is to facilitate interaction and information exchange between the forest products industry to enhance opportunities for sustained forest products production in the Eastern hardwood forest region of the United States.

The top two entries received a cash prize provided by the Southeastern Dry Kiln Club, and was conducted by North Carolina State University’s Wood Products Extension.

The two winners and their entries were:

• First Place: Joe Cardwell, Dabney S. Lancaster Community College, Clifton Forge, Va.
• Second Place: John Benefiel, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C.

Cardwell received $1,000 as the winner of the first place prize; and Benefiel received $500 as the second prize winner.

The students who entered the competition enjoyed the hands-on experience of working with new species of wood.

“This was the best learning experience yet in my college career,” said Benefiel.

As part of the USFS’s Under Utilized Eastern Hardwood Species Project, students were provided lumber donated by sawmills and lumber drying operations in the Eastern U.S. hardwood forest region.

Prizes were supplied by the Southeastern Dry Kiln Club, a professional association of lumber dry kiln managers and kiln operators in the Southeastern United States.

The 10 judges included designers, engineers and managers familiar with good design and engineering practices.

“This was a great experience for the students as they took raw lumber and created through many manufacturing operations a complete wood product,” said judge Jon Bensen of Hale Manufacturing of Frankfort, N.Y. “This hands-on project made them better understand how to convert ideas into finished products.”

Seventy-five colleges programs in furniture design, interior design and wood products were contacted about the project and encouraged to make the contest part of their course programs. The contest will also be conducted next in the spring semester of 2009.

For further information about next year’s contest, please contact Harry Watt at (704) 880-5034 or harry_watt@ncsu.edu.

Additional information about the Under Utilized Species Project can be found at www.ces.ncsu.edu/nreos/wood/.