Danzer Group pledges $75,000 to new School of Forest Resources Building

University Park, Pa. -- Pennsylvania-based companies within Danzer Group, an international leader in the manufacture and marketing of hardwood veneer, lumber and related products, have pledged $75,000 to fund a new wood products marketing laboratory in Penn State's School of Forest Resources Building.

The lab will focus on Pennsylvania hardwood industries, market development of woodfiber-plastic composites and value analysis of key building materials. It will be named the Danzer Group Wood Products Marketing Laboratory in honor of the donor's generosity.

Headquartered in Baar, Switzerland, Danzer Group has a 70-year history based on sustained management of hardwood resources, quality manufacture of hardwood veneer and lumber, and marketing programs to meet the worldwide demand for wood products. The Pennsylvania companies within Danzer Group contributing to this gift are Bradford Forest in Bradford and Tioga counties, Interforest Lumber Corp. in Shade Gap, Interforest Veneer in Darlington and The David R. Webb Co. in Williamsport.

"Danzer's gift to the new building will further the education of well-qualified wood product graduates for our industry and expanded research to ensure the competitive stance of Pennsylvania's wood industry in world markets," said Mark Conolly, president of Bradford Forest.

Danzer Group has been a long-term supporter of the School of Forest Resources' research programs in wood products and forestry, and in particular has been a sponsor of student educational exchange programs with the University of Freiburg in Germany.

The new four-story Forest Resources Building, under construction on the University Park campus, will house all three professional programs -- forest science, wildlife and fisheries science, and wood products -- under one roof for the first time in the school's century-long history. It is scheduled for occupancy in February 2006. The $30.5 million building is being financed by a combination of state, University, and philanthropic funds.