Heat Treat History

The American Lumber Standard Committee (ALSC), appointed by the Secretary of Commerce, and its independently elected Board of Review (BOR) were established in 1941 as an impartial agency to oversee the standardization, certification and accreditation for softwood lumber. Today the ALSC continues to operate under the consent decree and the Voluntary Product Standard system of the Department of Commerce.

In 2001 the ALSC also began a program to monitor the performance of agencies supervising the labeling of heat treated wood packaging material produced by wood packaging facilities under the requirements of International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) Guidelines for Regulating Wood Packaging Material in International Trade. The BOR discharges this function pursuant to the Memorandum of Understanding with the United States Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and ALSC policies and procedures.