"Georgia Grown Wood" campaign touts local forestry products

Source: GA Farm Bureau

by Jennifer Whittaker

August 20, 2026 - Although Georgia’s forestry sector has had a tough year with multiple timber mills closing, a record number of wildfires statewide, and international trade issues, while speaking at the Georgia Farm Bureau Commodity Conference in Tifton in mid-August, Georgia Forestry Commission (GFC) Director and State Forester Johnny Sabo pointed out some of the positives the industry has going for it.

Sabo said GFC is working with the Georgia Department of Agriculture’s Georgia Grown program and the Georgia Forestry Foundation to roll out a marketing campaign for Georgia Grown Wood.

A multitude of wood products are produced in Georgia, including not only lumber, but animal bedding, firewood and wood pellets, paper products, utility poles, pallets, and fence posts. Image credit: Mark Stebnicki

“Georgia Grown Wood is a marketing campaign that’s in partnership with the Georgia Department of Ag and the Georgia Forestry Foundation. The Forestry Foundation is really taking a lot of the lead on it. We envision that you will soon be able to walk into Lowe’s or Home Depot and look for the Georgia Grown Wood logo to buy products grown in our state,” Sabo said. “The Georgia Grown Wood logo will help you buy Southern yellow wood versus spruce or something else coming out from Canada.”

Sabo said thanks to funding the Georgia General Assembly approved, a new GFC county office being built in Morgan County to serve Greene and Morgan counties will be a mass timber building. The state budget included $2.6 million for design and construction of the building.

“It will be the first mass timber building built by the state, not by a private entity, that Georgia has ever had,” Sabo said. We received our civil engineering [specs] back. We’ve already got the architectural plans done. It will be built with all Georgia Grown Wood, so that’s something we’re really excited about.”

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