Seventy years of forest products research

In seventy years, timber use, at first governed by craft practices,has been transformed to a technology determined by scientificprinciples, made possible by the research on wood undertakenduring the period. The pattern of this research, those undertakingit, the factors determining it and its funding in the UnitedKingdom are considered. Today, forest products research is ata low ebb, compared with that in earlier decades, but it issuggested that with a rapidly expanding UK resource, a continuingnational dependence on timber and timber products and the environmental benefits from growing and using wood, the need for aneffective forest products research capability remains as importantas ever.