'Wood is good' message shared with sustainability classes

Published 09.28.2021

News

Architecture & Sustainable Design

Building Construction

Construction Management

Student News

Engineering Technologies

Page contents

Students were challenged to identify the two items in a tabletop display that don't contain wood or a wood byproduct. The impostors? Bamboo flooring, which – while renewable – is a grass, and the dollar bill. (Despite being called "paper money," U.S. currency is made entirely of cotton and linen.)

Phillips-Taggart outlines the association's outreach priorities (education, promotion and workforce development), and informs students about their eligibility for a $1,500 Richard P. Lauchle Scholarship. Lauchle, who graduated at the top of Williamsport Area Community College’s first forest technology class, owned and operated Lauchle Lumber in Montoursville from 1974 until his death in 2008.

Wozniak, an associate professor of architectural technology, brought along a homegrown example of wood's renewability: sandy remnants of a residential refinishing project. Sawdust can be repurposed as animal bedding or pelletized as a heat source, among alternative uses.

Penn College forest technology students are included in a stewardship video produced by KWPA and shared with classes this week.

Students in two sections of Rob A. Wozniak's "Sustainability: Building and Living Green" course were visited this week by Keystone Wood Products Association representatives, who talked about the benefits of wood as a renewable construction material.

The classes – comprising students in architecture and sustainable design, architectural technology and other construction-related majors – heard Monday afternoon from Ken Nuttle, KWPA education specialist; and the following morning from Stephanie Phillips-Taggart, marketing coordinator for the association's 11-county membership area.

"Wood plays an incredible role in our lives on a regular basis," Tuesday's guest said, reinforcing her message with videos profiling regional hardwood businesses and the importance of healthy forest management.