Seventy years of forest products research

Summary In seventy years, timber use, at first governed by craft practices, has been transformed to a technology determined by scientific principles, made possible by the research on wood undertaken during the period. The pattern of this research, those undertaking it, the factors determining it and its funding in the United Kingdom are considered. Today, forest products research is at a low ebb, compared with that in earlier decades, but it is suggested that with a rapidly expanding UK resource, a continuing national dependence on timber and timber products and the environmental benefits from growing and using wood, the need for an effective forest products research capability remains as important as ever.