Forests play a critical role in the environmental and economic health of the world. The world population continues to grow with an associated increase in demand for paper and wood products. Increasingly, forests are being recognized as more than simple photosynthesis factories. Forests are recognized as the "environmental capital" that provides the basis for a wide spectrum of benefits. Forest ecosystems provide watershed protection, nutrient cycling, a moderating influence on global climate, and serve as a repository for biological and genetic diversity. Many of these uses and benefits are complimentary. However, some are not and this leads to increased competition and conflicts, especially between meeting the nation's need for wood and fiber versus meeting society's expectation for a healthy environment. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the competing uses of U.S. forests have been the source of a persistent and often acrimonious debate. That same debate took place on a global scale at the United Nations Conference on environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992. Follow-up discussions have lend to formal recognition of substainability as the over arching issue facing the world andthe fact that environmental and economic issues cannot be easily separated.In the future, this same acrimonious debate is anticipated to move beyond thestage of debate and into the realm of public policy. Thus, as we develop researchneeds in wood engineering, we know that three primary issues will affect the use ofwood as a building material. These three primary issues are (1) increasing thedemand for all uses of forests, (2) changing the forest resource base, and (3)increasing environmental concerns that production and use of wood are causingdeterioration of the environment.

• market, trend, future
• material properties: hygrothermal
• research, funding : wood research
• wood, lumber, timber
• wood: engineered products : benefit of research