About
Prior to 1980, Pennsylvania sawmill owners, being fiercely independent, saw their fellow mill owners only as competitors and not as allies. A mill owner would not dream of going onto the property of another mill owner or working together on issues of common interest.
This perspective changed in 1980, when a group of sawmill owners founded the Hardwood Lumber Manufacturers Association of Pennsylvania.
A number of Pennsylvania mill owners recognized that if they wanted beneficial changes to laws and regulations burdening the industry, they would have to stand up and work together for these changes. They realized that they could work together for the common interests of the industry while still competing economically as independent businesses.
The first organizational meeting took place at a hotel in South Williamsport. The group named their organization the Hardwood Lumber Manufacturers Association of Pennsylvania (HLMA). Startup funds were committed by sawmills and a Board of Directors was formed. Originally, only sawmills operating in Pennsylvania were eligible to join HLMA, as the Board did not want to dilute the focus of the organization. In its infancy, the membership of the Association was modest. Membership grew over the years, as sawmills saw the effectiveness of the Association.
One of HLMA’s first legislative accomplishments was the repeal of the state sales tax on firewood sales. HLMA representatives were invited by Governor Thornburgh to the formal signing of this law. As the years progressed, the Association gained recognition as the voice of the industry before the Pennsylvania General Assembly and regulatory agencies and its list of legislative and regulatory successes grew steadily. The Association currently represents the forest products industry on nearly two dozen key state government policy and advisory committees.
In 1983, the Board decided to hold a timber industry trade show to bring sawmill operators and loggers together to see the latest equipment. In these early years, it was a major source of revenue for the Association and provided an opportunity to recruit new members. The Timber Show was initially an annual event, held at the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds. Later the show became a biennial event. The Timber Show has been held in York, Clearfield, and Harrisburg. Since 2005, this exposition has been held every other year at the Ag Progress Days site in Rock Springs. Our most recent show in 2023 attracted nearly 3,500 attendees and over 90 vendors, and included equipment demonstrations, an industry career fair and in-woods tours. The next Timber Show will take place June 6 & 7, 2025, at the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock Springs, 2710 W Pine Grove Rd, Pennsylvania Furnace, PA 16865.
The Association has recognized the importance of promoting the industry and its issues to the general public. In an effort to provide balanced and factual information to students, the Association led a group to create the “Sustaining Penn’s Woods” educational curriculum, which is now required teaching in middle and high schools. The Association has also partnered with the Hardwoods Development Council to create the Pennsylvania WoodMobile, a traveling interactive exhibit and education program for students and adults. Projects at the General Aviation Terminal of the University Park Airport and the new Penn State School of Forest Resources Building demonstrate the beauty and practicality of utilizing Pennsylvania wood products.
Over the last four decades, the Association has evolved from an exclusive sawmill group to an organization representing the many diverse sectors of the forest products industry.
Through changes to the Association by-laws and expansion of the Board of Directors, the Association now also represents loggers, foresters, forest landowners, concentration and distribution yards, cabinet and furniture manufacturers, paper mills, fiberboard mills, pallet mills and other secondary processors. It also includes in its membership companies providing equipment and services to the forest products industry. In 2003, HLMA formally changed its name to the Pennsylvania Forest Products Association to better reflect the group’s diverse membership. Since then, PFPA has seen representatives from the sectors of lumber production, lumber distribution, secondary wood processing and logging all serve as Chairman of the PFPA Board of Directors. Growth across the forest products sector has continued, first reaching the milestone level of 300 members in 2024.
At the end of 2007, PFPA moved its offices from Hershey to downtown Harrisburg. In late-2020 the PFPA relocated once again to a location on Third Street immediately across the street from the Pennsylvania Capitol Complex. This location strategically positions PFPA staff footsteps from many of the leaders, policymakers and agencies most important to the interests of PFPA’s membership.
In 2019, PFPA joined several other associations from across the country to become a founding member of the Real American Hardwood Coalition, an industry-led effort to promote to consumers the superior beauty, durability and sustainability of authentic hardwood products over our competitors. This initiative reached millions of consumers nationwide in 2023 and 2024 through a mass media campaign in partnership with media partners such as Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia Network and is strongly positioned to continue building awareness and growing domestic hardwood demand in 2025 and beyond.
In 2025, the Pennsylvania Sustainable Forestry Initiative (PA SFI) Implementation Committee is celebrating its 30thAnniversary. PA SFI is the primary provider of logger training in Pennsylvania and supports landowner outreach programming. Nearly 8,000 individuals have participated in PA SFI logger training since 1996. Since PA SFI’s inception, PFPA has served as its sponsoring organization. In 2024, PA SFI began reorganizing as an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit, and PFPA is eager to assist in enhancing the committee’s capacity to advance the safety and sustainability of the forest products sector.