(NAFB.com) – Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins said the U.S. Forest Service is awarding $80 million in Wood Innovation Grants to spur wood products manufacturing, expand active forest management, and accelerate energy innovation across America’s timber-producing communities. “The U.S. has a bounty of natural resources that we must properly manage to sustain our future economy and boost rural communities,” Rollins said. “Proper forest use and management lowers our reliance on foreign products.” The investments in innovation that ensure a steady, sustainable supply of American wood not only support jobs and fuel economies, but they also protect the people and communities we serve, as well as the forest resources they depend on to survive and thrive. The new spending also tears down unnecessary barriers that have kept forests dangerously overstocked and unhealthy, putting communities at risk from wildfire and other threats. The broader goal is to advance economic opportunity and ensure long-term forest resilience.