PULLMAN – U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke recently reappointed Donald Bender as a principal member of the American Lumber Standard Committee representing consumers. Bender is a professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Composite Materials and Engineering Center at WSU.
The ALSC, comprised of manufacturers, distributors, users and consumers of structural lumber, is responsible for the development, maintenance and enforcement of NIST Voluntary Product Standard PS-20 and the accreditation program for lumber grading.
The American Lumber Standard system is the basis for the sale and purchase of virtually all softwood lumber traded in North America. The system also provides the basis for acceptance of and design values for lumber by the building codes throughout the United States.