Dick Lugar
U.S. Senator for Indiana
Contact: Mark Hayes • 202-224-8370 • Date: 08/23/2005
• •
Lugar Announces USDAForest Service Official to Visit Indiana
U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar has announced that Michael A. Ritter, the U.S. Forest Service’s Assistant Director of the Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) in Madison, Wisconsin, will visit Indiana on August 24 and 25 to tour wood product companies and conduct technology transfer meetings with PurdueUniversity faculty and Indiana state government officials.
Lugar invited Ritter to Indiana to improve the federal government’s knowledge about the hardwoods industry in Indiana and to increase opportunities for collaboration with the agency’s Forest Products Laboratory and other Indiana wood product manufacturers. This visit is the latest effort by Lugar to boost the competitiveness of this industry in Indiana and throughout the nation, and to highlight the economic importance of hardwoods and other wood products to Indiana’s - and the nation’s - economy.
Earlier this month, Lugar said that he looked forward to Ritter’s visit because it would provide an exciting opportunity for the Forest Service to see firsthand the broad spectrum of innovative work done by Hoosier wood products companies.
On August 24, Ritter will tour Graber Post Building, Inc. ( in Montgomery, Indiana, and Olon Industries, Inc. ( in Washington, Indiana. On August 25, Ritter will visit PurdueUniversity and meet with faculty and staff at the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, and the Hardwood Tree Improvement and RegenerationCenter, ( and the new PurdueUniversityEnergyCenter in Lafayette. Lugar is working to secure financial support in the federal budget for a cutting-edge log scanning project at Purdue’s HardwoodTreeCenter.
Ritter is a registered professional engineer and is responsible for wood products development and the oversight for several units at the FPL dedicated to forest mycology, wood anatomy, wood engineering, biodeterioration of wood, protection of wood from decay, fire and weathering, and evaluation of the economics of wood utilization.
Participating in the tour will be representatives from the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, Indiana Department of Natural Resources-Division of Forestry, PurdueUniversity, ForestService-HoosierNational Forest, Hoosier Energy and Lane Ralph and Larry Ordner of Senator Lugar’s staff. Daviess County Economic Development Corporation officials assisted with the plant tour arrangements.
At Lugar’s request, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is conducting a nationwide study on the federal government’s activities in wood utilization and product development. The report will evaluate the staff and budgetary resources the federal government devotes to transferring new technology and research to wood product manufacturers and the mechanisms used to transfer this information to the private sector economy. The GAO is expected to complete this report for Congress in 2006.
Lugar is a member and former Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Nutrition. He has championed programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and farm Best Management Practices, which have resulted in the increased potential of trees and crops to sequester CO2 and other gases. The CRP is the largest tree-planting program in history. Millions of acres have been planted to trees since 1985 and millions more have been left as grasses and not tilled.
In 2002, Lugar received the Black Walnut Achievement Award from the International Walnut Council and received Indiana's 2002 Tree Farmer of the Year at the 105th Annual Convention of the Indiana Hardwood Lumbermen's Association. Lugar also manages his family’s 604-acre corn, soybean and tree farm in MarionCounty.
Additional information:
- Walnut tree farming (via Lugar’s website) -
- The U.S.Forest Service -
- The Forest Products Laboratory -
- Hardwood Tree Improvement and RegenerationCenter -
- Purdue University-Department of Forestry and Natural Resources -
- Indiana State Department of Agriculture -
- Daviess County Economic Development Corporation -
###