The oldest family owned lumber company in Montana, F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Company has announced that they are joining forces with a group of key partners to form Stoltze Timber Systems, Inc. to build North America’s first mass timber production facility aimed at using small-diameter trees to build large format, cross-laminated timber panels.

Currently, Montana forests are saturated with small-diameter timber. In terms of resource management, this is proving problematic — the majority of timber sales require the timber’s removal as a fuel-reduction measure, but the over-supply isn’t matched by a readily available or economically viable marketable demand.

The intent of Stoltze Timber Systems, Inc. is to use Montana’s vast supply of small-diameter trees to create large format panels and, ultimately, green and efficient building systems with high demand. Stateside production is slated to begin early next year with a phased-out, integrated manufacturing plan emulating the practices of mass timber production that has shaped European buildings landscapes for decades, while Stoltze’s existing sawmill will be used to process the supply of small timber — which has little value at the lumberyard — to produce large-format mass timber.