Perspectives
A blog dedicated to wood products and the people, communities, and forests that produce them.
Welcome to our blog, where diverse voices from throughout the company share stories about Hampton Lumber, the forest sector, and life in the Pacific Northwest. With Perspectives, we aim to shed light on what goes into producing building materials from some of the most sustainably managed forest resources on the planet.
Northwest Timber: Where Grit Meets Science
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Peter Hampton
The Pacific Northwest has long been the epicenter of the American forestry and logging industry. Today, Oregon and Washington are the top-two softwood lumber producers in the nation, together accounting for 29 percent of the building materials produced in the U.S. The region’s expansive forests, dominated by towering Douglas fir and western hemlock, have provided […]
Students’ Art Transforms Hampton Lumber Wrap
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Kristin Rasmussen
At Hampton Lumber, we believe in the power of community and the importance of celebrating the unique character of the places where we operate. That’s why, in 2022, we gave local high school students the opportunity to showcase their creativity and community pride through a lumber wrap design contest. We received around 100 submissions, each […]
Seeking a Better Future for National Forests at Risk
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Kristin Rasmussen
Since the early 1990s, timber harvest volume on federally-managed National Forests in the Pacific Northwest has decreased by more than 90 percent. While National Forests make up nearly half of all forestland in Washington and Oregon, they currently account for only 10 percent of wood supply in the region. As a result, many mills shuttered […]
Portland YouthBuilders and Hampton Team Up
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Kristin Rasmussen
Hampton has a long history of engagement in the communities where we operate. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, we work with a number of local non-profit organizations that work to improve quality of life for all. One such organization is Portland YouthBuilders (PYB). PYB has helped thousands of young people whose experiences with poverty, violence, drugs, […]
Girls Build Comes to Oregon’s North Coast
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Kristin Rassmussen
Girls Build, based in Portland, Oregon, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering girls aged 8 to 14 through hands-on building and construction activities. Founded to address gender disparities in the trades, Girls Build offers workshops, camps, and after-school programs where participants learn skills such as carpentry, welding, and electrical work from female instructors. We discovered […]
Trees & Bees: Pollinator Habitat on Timberlands
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Kristin Rassmussen
Hampton’s working forests provide raw materials for a variety of value-added wood products but they also create a wide range of habitat opportunities as trees grow and mature, including for native pollinators. Recent studies reveal that timber harvest sites can act as valuable pollinator habitat by opening up areas of forest canopy for habitation by plant […]
