Nelsonville, OH – “Wood works here.” With those simple words, the Appalachian Partnership, Inc. (API) is pleased to announce the official launch of the new website for Ohio Wood Products. Designed to be Ohio’s foremost wood products resource, OhioWoodProducts.com is a single hub where distinct sectors of the hardwood industry can easily connect. At the heart of the website is the Ohio Wood Products Directory with a GIS-enabled supply chain map that is helping to grow the industry and making it more accessible.
“The site and company directory is a culmination of hundreds of manhours and thousands of miles across Ohio visiting nearly all of the shops and factories in the database,” said Frank Roberts, Program Manager of Wood Products at API. “There is now a single working platform that connects and directs users around the globe to our highly sought Ohio hardwoods and craftsmanship.”
“‘Wood Works Here’ was chosen as a central message for the launch of the new website because it conveys the real value of Ohio hardwoods across a very broad spectrum,” said Roberts. “Ohio’s well-managed hardwoods work not only in Ohio, but around the world, for the environment as well as the economy.”
“We’re very excited about the launch of the new website and directory,” said Patrick Bolton, API Data Analyst and Project Associate. “The streamlined features, new search capabilities, and faster load times greatly enhance the total user experience. New analytics allow us to measure all the activity, then adapt and execute marketing strategies as the new data dictates.”
Ohio’s expansive hardwoods industry includes lumber, logging, timber brokering, pallets, mulch, paper, hardwood flooring, furniture, musical instruments, caskets and more. Transforming standing timber into these products and services requires a diverse group of talent, transportation, and technology, which is why the Supply Chain Database on OhioWoodProducts.com is so vital. With more than 1,600 companies and 300 sawmills represented, and steadily growing, the directory’s GIS-enabled map makes quick work of pinpointing and connecting hardwood suppliers, master loggers, craftsmen, and products-for people all over the world.
“The website creates an opportunity for businesses of all sizes in the Ohio hardwoods industry to increase their national and international visibility and exposure through four distinct levels of membership in the directory,” Roberts said. “In addition to this robust supply chain database, Ohio Wood Products provides access to technical manufacturing support and professional consulting for Ohio’s wood-based businesses.”
Hundreds of millions of board-feet of prized oak, hickory, walnut, maple and birch are harvested from Ohio’s Appalachian region each year and find their way across the country and around the world, yet more than a billion board-feet of timber is grown in its place.
Responsible forestry management ensures that Appalachian Ohio’s hardwood supply is far greater than its demand. In fact, many consumers, who had long believed that choosing wood products was depleting the forest or was bad for the environment, are learning that the opposite is true. The carbon footprint of wood products is minimal, especially compared to synthetics and plastics, and byproducts of the manufacturing of wood products are used for everything from animal bedding to building materials. Wood works for the environment.
The proper harvesting of timber is not limited to large forests. Private landowners who decide to sell the timber on their land are learning that professional wood harvesting can mean a greater profit, minimal disturbance to their property, and faster and higher quality regrowth. Wood even works for private landowners.
OhioWoodProducts.com was created to help bolster Appalachian Ohio’s often underserved hardwoods economy and to help connect and streamline its supply chain. Ohio’s hardwood industry contributes more than $24 billion to the state’s economy annually, employs more than 120,000 people, and is home to the largest hardwood furniture manufacturing sector in the nation.
“A lot of people are surprised to learn just how far-reaching Ohio’s hardwood impact is,” Roberts noted. “For example, Hochstetler Wood Ltd, an Amish furniture manufacturer right here in Millersburg, Ohio, provides furniture for two large national restaurant chains with hundreds of locations across the U.S. They chose American-made wood furniture over foreign plastics and other materials.”
“The Ohio Wood Products website and interactive database are an easy-to-use tool for members of the forest products industry in Ohio and surrounding states,” said Brad Perkins, Executive Director of the Ohio Forestry Association. “Loggers, sawmills, furniture manufacturers and other forest products companies can use this website to connect with the right sources of raw materials for their business and to enhance the marketing of their products.”
Ohio Wood Products, part of the Appalachian Partnership, Inc., is a not-for-profit economic development organization headquartered in Nelsonville, Ohio. Its mission is to foster enduring, widely shared prosperity across Appalachian Ohio by helping build the region’s private sector business economy. Learn more at OhioWoodProducts.com.
For additional information or related photos please contact:
Frank Roberts
Program Manager – Wood Products
froberts@apppart.org
O: 740.753.5359 C: 740.648.0360
Mail: 35 Public Square, PO Box 456
Nelsonville, OH 45764
Robert Bowman
Copywriter, Clayman & Associates
rbowman@claymanandassociates.com
O: 740.376.1470 C: 304.488.3433
Mail: Reno Business Park, 27811 State Rt. 7
Marietta, OH 45750
