The IPPC ISPM15 standard provides that all solid wood components of wood packaging materials must be Heat Treated or fumigated. This includes all hardwood packaging materials such as pallet lumber, skid lumber, crating lumber, wedges, dunnage and blocking. In addition to being Heat Treated this material must be certified as such and stamped. The American Lumber Standard Committee (www.alsc.org) provides a listing of all accredited agencies. For United States exports of hardwood packaging materials, a three phase implementation process was established: Phase 1 (9/16/05 - 1/31/06) No action would be taken but there would be ISPM15 non-compliance notifications; Phase 2 (2/1/06 - 7/3/06) All non-compliant wood packaging would be rejected and quarantine expenses would be billed to the importer; Phase 3 (7/4/06) Full enforcement of ISPM15.

As of January 1, 2006, Richards Wood Products, whom we represent, has built and is operating a kiln/heat chamber, which is capable of Heat Treating hardwood lumber and dunnage. Richards Wood Products is one of only a handful of mills in the Midwestern United States, which can produce Heat Treated lumber and dunnage. There are several pallet mills, which can Heat Treat whole loads of pallets, but they are not capable of processing lumber alone.

Our Heat Treated matererial would be accredited through Timber Products Inspection, Inc (www.tpinspection.com) and would bear a stamp as shown below. If the material is to be used as dunnage only, it will contain the DUN designation as shown. If the material is to be used for some other packaging usage, it would only have the HT designation. The US-2579 designation is the mill number of Richards Wood Products and the TP designation is for Timber Products Inspection, Inc.