Lumber industry professional with more than 35 years of experience serves as a lumber industry expert witness specializing in wood products inspection and grading. Professional work in this field involves inspection, grading, production oversight, and quality control within lumber manufacturing and processing operations. The expert’s experience includes evaluation of more than 22 North American softwood species as well as several European, Australian, and South American species. Their expertise encompasses lumber inspection, structural grading practices, site inspection, and quality control processes associated with wood products used in construction and industrial applications. This expert has more than 10 years of experience providing consultations and deposition for numerous clients as a lumber industry expert witness.

Technical work within the lumber industry includes inspection and grading of lumber, logs, trusses, utility poles, treated wood products, and structural timber components. Responsibilities have involved supervising lumber and log inspections, training inspection personnel, and conducting inspections of lumber structures and wood-based building components. Additional areas of experience include lumber production processes, sawmill and planer quality control, export wood packaging inspections, and the evaluation of treated wood materials. The expert has also provided lumber industry expert witness consultations and deposition testimony in matters involving wood inspection, grading practices, and lumber quality issues.

Leadership and management roles within the lumber inspection field include serving as President of a lumber consulting firm providing grader training and consulting on sawmill and planer quality control, along with positions as Chief Lumber Inspector and Regional Supervisor responsible for oversight of third-party inspections and inspector training programs. These roles included supervising inspections related to lumber, logs, trusses, treated wood, glu-lam products, utility poles, and heat-treated wood packaging, as well as providing instruction on inspection and code compliance topics to builders, architects, engineers, and regulatory officials.

Professional credentials include certification as a lumber grader through the Western Wood Products Association and certification as a pole inspector through the Rural Electrification Administration. Additional regulatory and safety training includes certification through the U.S. Department of Labor Mine Safety and Health Administration for surface, construction, and underground operations. The expert’s work has also involved application of numerous industry standards and regulatory frameworks governing wood products and structural lumber inspection, including specifications and standards issued by major lumber inspection organizations and building code authorities.