New Hampshire Takes a Stand for American Lumber

A new Senate bill is putting SPFs on the specification sheet. Here’s what the grading debate is really about — and what it means for members and builders.

The wood on both sides of the border is nearly identical. The label is not. That distinction has cost domestic mills market share for thirty years.

The Lowercase “s” That Changed Everything:

If you’ve worked in the lumber industry long enough, the SPF vs. SPFs distinction is nothing new. But for architects, engineers, and builders who haven’t dug into the grading history, it remains one of the more confusing and consequential details in wood construction — and it has quietly shaped procurement decisions for a generation.

Here is the short version: in 1991, when the American Lumber Standard Committee adopted a new full-size testing methodology, US-harvested Spruce-Pine-Fir earned its own designation — SPFs, with a lowercase “s” — to distinguish it from the Canadian SPF grouping that had already existed. The two groups were tested separately, and the resulting design values came out differently. That gap in published values, not a gap in the wood itself, is what has driven specifiers toward Canadian product ever since.

What NELMA’s Technical Documentation Establishes

SPFs (with lowercase “s”) is the American designation. The “s” indicates the lumber was produced from logs harvested in the United States, south of the Canadian border. The grouping currently includes 10 species spanning the northern US — Red, Black, and White Spruce, Norway Spruce, Balsam Fir, Jack Pine, Red Pine, Engelmann Spruce, Sitka Spruce, and Lodgepole Pine.

SPF (no “s”) is the Canadian designation, covering 8 species. It includes most of the same species but adds Alpine Fir and excludes Sitka Spruce, Norway Spruce, and Red Pine.

The practical design difference: for repetitive-member applications — wall studs, floor joists, rafters — SPFs meets standard loading requirements. For floor and ceiling joist spans, allowable spans using SPFs run approximately 4.3% to 8.7% shorter than SPF-published values, depending on grade, spacing, and load. This is a workable differential, not a structural disqualifier, and NELMA’s span comparison tables document it precisely for each load scenario.

Senate Bill 529: What It Does and Where It Stands

This past winter, New Hampshire legislators introduced Senate Bill 529, a measure that would require state-funded building projects to give preference to US-sourced lumber — and specifically to reference SPFs in construction drawings and design specifications for softwood framing. The bill passed the Senate in January and was engrossed on February 26, 2026. A public hearing in the House Public Works and Highways Committee was held on March 24, with a committee vote expected in the coming days.

The bill is a preference measure, not a mandate. It carves out an exception when project design criteria genuinely require imported lumber. This is a deliberate choice by the bill’s sponsors — by setting a first-right-of-refusal standard rather than an outright requirement, it creates a durable policy foothold without forcing outcomes that could conflict with engineering judgment on specific projects.

New Hampshire is also considering two related bills. SB 503 takes a stronger approach, mandating that for state building code purposes, SPFs lumber harvested and milled in New Hampshire must be accepted wherever SPF is specified — with an exception for safety-critical applications. HB 1204 focuses on grading eligibility, proposing that softwood timber harvested in New Hampshire at or above 44 degrees North latitude be eligible for SPF classification. Both bills have advanced through their respective committees, though HB 1204 has seen significant amendments due to concerns about interfering with international grading standards.

Legislative Status as of Late March 2026

• SB 529 — Engrossed Feb. 26; House Public Works and Highways Committee public hearing completed March 24; committee vote pending
• SB 503 — Passed Senate; House Resources, Recreation, and Development Committee voted to recommend full House passage (March 25)
• HB 1204 — Under significant amendment in House committee; fate less certain
• March 26 was “Crossover” — the NH legislative halfway point; all three bills remain active

What Critics Are Saying

The bills have not been without pushback. The Structural Engineers of New Hampshire raised concerns at the Senate committee level, arguing that treating SPFs and SPF as equivalent for specification purposes creates confusion — that the two designations reflect genuinely different tested values, and that blurring that line could cause engineers to avoid specifying either species group in order to sidestep ambiguity.

This is worth taking seriously. The goal of the legislation is to put SPFs on the specification sheet, not to create uncertainty that pushes specifiers away from both products. How SB 503 is ultimately written and implemented will matter considerably in this regard. The NELMA span and design value documentation — which spells out precisely where SPFs performs equivalently and where adjustments are needed — is exactly the kind of technical grounding that helps engineers make confident, code-defensible decisions.

Practical Guidance Right Now

Regardless of how the House votes on these bills, the underlying dynamic they’re responding to is real and is not going away. Tariffs on Canadian lumber remain in effect, domestic demand for US-sourced wood is increasing, and the conversation about how SPFs is specified is now happening in statehouses, not just industry working groups.

For builders and contractors: SPFs is a code-compliant, well-documented product for the vast majority of residential framing applications. For repetitive member uses — studs, joists in standard spans, rafters — the span difference is manageable and the value proposition is strong. Ask your supplier for SPFs-stamped product and verify the grade stamp.

For architects and engineers: NELMA’s span comparison tables provide load-specific data for SPFs vs. SPF across the full range of floor joist and ceiling joist applications. Referencing SPFs in your specifications is straightforward when you have the published values in hand. The base design value tables are available directly from NELMA’s website and are drawn from Section 8 of the Standard Grading Rules for Northeastern Lumber.

For NELMA members: This legislative moment is an opportunity. Whether or not SB 529 passes in its current form, it has put the SPFs designation into the news cycle and into the vocabulary of procurement officials, contractors, and specifiers who may never have considered domestic sourcing before. Make sure your sales materials are clear on grade stamps and your customers know how to read them.

On grade stamp literacy: The lowercase “s” is the whole story. A grade stamp reading “SPFs” means US-harvested, ALSC-graded, domestically produced lumber. A stamp reading “SPF” is Canadian-origin product. This distinction is invisible to many buyers. Helping your customers read the stamp correctly is one of the most direct things the industry can do to compete on a level field.

New Hampshire is the second most forested state in the country. That its timber industry has operated at a structural disadvantage in the specification market for three decades — because of a testing artifact, not a difference in wood quality — is a problem worth fixing. The legislative effort underway is one part of that fix. The other part is education, and that is squarely in NELMA’s lane.

NELMA’s full SPFs technical documentation — including base design value tables, span comparison tables, and grade stamp interpretation guidance — is available at nelma.org/about-sfps.