After 90 years in business, NELMA has learned a few things about working with lumber wholesalers. But how did we get to this point? Let’s take a look back at some of the highlights we’ve experienced over the last 90 years … maybe you remember some of them!
1691 The King’s Broad Arrow appears on tall, straight, strong Eastern White Pine trees throughout New England as the Royal Navy attempts to keep the best trees for themselves, leaving Colonists with weaker trees to build their homes and businesses.
1933 NELMA is established in New York City with two whole employees.
1937 The first Eastern White Pine Grade Rules are released and shared industry wide.
1938 First Grading Rules for Eastern Spruce-Balsam Fir are published.
1939 NELMA launched their first-ever Grader Training School, teaching eager sawmill
employees how to properly grade and mark Eastern White Pine.
1940 NELMA exhibits at the 1940 World’s Fair! Held in New York City, the country was coming out of the Great Depression, and the World’s Fair was decided upon to boost tourism, revenue, and overall morale in the city. The theme: World of Tomorrow.
1946 NELMA releases the film “The Story of Wood in the Northeast.”
1955 The very first lumber exhibit for NELMA at Lumber Retailer Shows.
1970 The first Voluntary Product Standard for Lumber was published.
1982 NELMA celebrated 50 years of service at their annual meeting in Boston.
2001 The heat treatment inspection program is launched at NELMA, beginning what is still a very important international program for the association. Through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Agreement with the USDA APHIS, NELMA is an established certifying agency with approval to issue a Heat Treatment Certification to manufacturing member mills that ship direct or sell Softwood lumber destined for overseas customers.
2003 The first-ever Grader Competition is held between NELMA mills.
2006 The White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs are brought back to life with new issues.
2008 NELMA celebrates their 75th anniversary in New York City, going back to where it all began!
2010 The nelmaTV channel is launched on YouTube, providing free access to a plethora of how-to and informational videos.
2011 NELMA is the first grading agency to develop an iPhone Inspection application with which to conduct lumber inspections.
2012 1.29 billion board feet of renewable, sustainable lumber is produced by NELMA member mills.
NELMA’s Sustainable Versatility Design Award for students is launched.
2014 The Grader Academy is introduced, taking a fun look at grading and placing it online for higher engagement and modernization of information needed across the board.
2015 Skip & Wane, the lumber industry’s first-ever old-school comic strip, is launched by NELMA. Issues saw Skip and Wane deal with aliens, mushrooms growing out of fake wood boards, and even Bigfoot.
2016 NELMA announces the addition of a new species to the SPFs grouping as Norway Spruce becomes the first new, major, U.S.-grown, Softwood species to be fully tested for strength values since the initial process for assigning design values by way of lumber testing of wood samples began in the 1920s. The inclusion of Norway Spruce was approved by the American Lumber Standard Committee in late 2016, following more than a year of work by NELMA to shepherd the species through the process. You might recognize the Norway Spruce, as it’s the most popular species chosen for the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree each year.
2017 NELMA merges with the Northern Softwood Lumber Bureau (NSLB), marking the first time two grade rules writing agencies have merged in North America. A Red Pine Committee was added to the NELMA structure, and the expanded footprint of the two agencies equals the Northeastern quadrant of the United States.
2019 NELMA begins a partnership with the Maine Cabin Masters to educate and promote the use of Eastern White Pine and SPFs lumber nationwide.
2023 NELMA celebrates 90 years of serving the lumber industry at their Annual Meeting in Rockland, Maine.
Learn more at www.nelma.org.
