Introduction to NHLA’s Crossroads Strategies Task Force: A coordinated effort to try to save the U.S. Hardwood Lumber Industry

Crossroads Strategies (CRS) and Seven Letter are sister firms under Public Policy Holding Company (PPHC), a Washington, D.C.-based network of public affairs, research, and government relations firms serving more than 1,400 clients, including nearly half of the Fortune 100. 

CRS is a bipartisan federal lobbying and advocacy firm founded in 2010; Seven Letter is a strategic communications arm, pairing research and aggregation with messaging and public affairs work to build broader political support. Together, the two firms are running an integrated lobbying, political, and communications campaign for a National Hardwood Lumber Association (NHLA)-established task force. The task force’s work is designed to reverse a decline in the domestic hardwood industry driven by raw log exports to China and Vietnam and by cheap substitute products displacing solid hardwood in furniture, cabinetry, flooring, and construction. 

Starting in May of 2026, Crossroads and Seven Letter, working with a dedicated task force of hardwood industry leaders, have implemented a comprehensive and coordinated government affairs and public relations campaign to engage Washington on multiple fronts simultaneously: agency engagement (USTR, Commerce, USDA, DOW, GSA), relationship-building on Capitol Hill, and a "Big Tent" strategy that brings allied industry groups together to advocate for the entire vertical domestic hardwood supply chain. The underlying case is that rebuilding structural demand for American-grown, harvested, and manufactured hardwood — rather than imports or substitutes — is both an economic and a national security priority, and the current political focus on reshoring and China trade competition offers a real window to secure lasting change. 

This webinar with KCMA will go deeper into this work and what it could mean for kitchen cabinet manufacturers and the broader domestic hardwood supply chain.