A treated wood-based composite is formed by treating a green wood furnish with an amount of a treating agent effective to increase the value of the resulting wood-based composite. The treating agent can be, for example, a fire retardant, a wood preservative, a dye, a pigment, a stain, bleach, a water repellant, a drying oil, or a combination thereof. The treated green wood furnish is blended with a binder and then bound, as by pressing the furnish, to form a non-leaching fire-retardant wood based composite. Another aspect of the invention is the product formed according to the preceding process. The addition of the treating agent to green wood chips, without the need to dry them to low moisture content, is believed to be novel.