From Wildfire to Wealth

This executive summary outlines a strategy for Colorado to develop a mass timber industry using small-diameter trees from wildfire mitigation to address rural economic challenges, housing shortages, and construction-sector carbon emissions.

• Colorado faces a combination of frequent wildfires, a lack of affordable housing, and limited high-quality rural employment. Utilizing small-diameter trees (9 inches or less) from wildfire mitigation to create mass timber products could address these issues and lower carbon emissions in the construction sector, which ranks as the state's third-largest pollution source.
• The development of a mass timber industry in Colorado is hindered by limited logging and milling infrastructure and uncertainties regarding supply from federally managed forests, though it is supported by updated building codes and rising demand for sustainable materials.
• The report proposes a two-phase strategy for wood product businesses: a 'Rightsize Now' phase (2–3 years) focusing on increasing log supply to existing mills and starting small-scale production of nail-laminated, dowel-laminated, and cross-laminated timber; and a 'Plan for Scale' phase (5–10 years) focusing on high-volume production of cross-laminated timber, glue-laminated timber, and wood fiber insulation using automated techniques.

APA

RMI (2024). From Wildfire to Wealth. https://rmi.org/resources/from-wildfire-to-wealth/

Chicago

RMI. From Wildfire to Wealth. 2024. https://rmi.org/resources/from-wildfire-to-wealth/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=From Wildfire to Wealth |date=19 November 2024 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/from-wildfire-to-wealth/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2024from, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{From Wildfire to Wealth}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2024}, month = nov, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/from-wildfire-to-wealth/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }