Monday September 14 2009
This map shows the locations and details (click on image below to get to clickable map - you can click on $ icon for project information) for the successful projects for the 2009 Woody Biomass Utilization Grant. You can see that successful projects are in the west of the country. The grants therefore appear to be hitting the areas in greatest need of maintaining or building infrastructure to process woody biomass in order to benefit forest health. There are also maps that show the geographic spread of grants for the program in
2007 and
2008. All maps can be opened in a new window if you want to see more.
Wednesday September 2 2009
A
USDA press release from last week finally makes the announcement that $4.2 million in grants has been awarded to 17 small businesses and community groups across the country. Five of the beneficiaries are California companies who did an excellent job of putting together high quality projects. The recipients were chosen from 109 applications.
The Forest Service's State and Private Forestry, Technology Marketing Unit, at the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, administers the program.
The successful projects are listed below. Check back soon to see a map of where they are located and details on the 2010 program.
Rover Shavings & Post, Inc, Rover, AR - $250,000
Pure Wood Products, LLC, Pinetop, AZ - $250,000
California Wood Shavings, Inc, Jamestown, CA - $249,550
CLT Logging, Inc, Grenada, CA - $250,000
Franklin Logging, Inc, Bella Vista, CA - $250,000
Scott Dunn Logging, Fortuna, CA - $250,000
Trinity River Lumber Company, Weaverville, CA - $250,000
Independent Log Company, Alamosa, CO - $250,000
Intermountain Resources, LLC, Montrose, CO - $250,000
Rogue Resources, Inc./More Lumber, Milner, CO - $250,000
Idaho Forest Group, LLC, Athol, ID - $250,000
Eagle Stud Mill, Inc, Missoula, MT - $250,000
Eureka Pellet Mills, Inc, Missoula, MT - $250,000
Southwest Piñon, Inc, Datil, NM - $250,000
Community Smallwood Solutions, Wallowa, OR - $249,819
Marubeni Sustainable Energy, Lakeview, OR - $250,000
Olson Brothers Enterprises, LLC, Crivitz, WI - $250,000
Thursday June 11 2009
Another announcement was made today by the USDA regarding Forest
Service American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds. The announcement by Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan concerns 30 projects valued at approximtately $57m. The projects are categorized into biomass utilization and wood-to-energy. California is shown to have 2 projects, both in the Northwest part of the state, with a combined total value of $4,748,000. We have updated the Forest Service ARRA projects list in
the document library. It provides some more (relatively limited) detail on the projects funded across the US. We will update this post with further information as we receive it.
Link to USDA news release
Link to Forest Service ARRA projects list
Link to Forest Service website
Tuesday June 2 2009
Today Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Announced American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Projects for Forest Road Maintenance and Associated Watershed and Ecosystem Restoration. Four projects in California with a total value of $24.9m are identified in the $228m allocated.
The Forest Service also posted an updated list of projects that have been funded through ARRA on its website. The Forest Service in California has received approximately $83m for 21 projects across the state to date. If you are interested in seeing what type of work is being funded the document is on our website
here or on the
Forest Service website .
There is still no news as to when there will be an announcement of the successful application for the
2009 Woody Biomass Utilization Grant. We will keep you updated on further developments.
Today's USDA press release is
here. USDA also maintains an
interactive map showing projects which can be a useful tool.
Tuesday June 2 2009
Over 40 people came to the stewardship contracting and woody biomass utilization workshop at the Heritage Ag Complex in Tulare recently. About one third of the audience came from Sierra and Sequoia National Forests with representatives from local industry and the community also in attendance.
The first day focused on introducing the tool of Stewardship Contracting including its development and authorities. We concluded with introductions to woody biomass utilization.
The woody biomass utilization track continued on the second morning focusing on existing local markets and potential options for new markets. After looking at environmental community perspectives, air quality issues and funding opportunities we wrapped up with a group based visioning exercise. The 3 themes that emerged were: “Partnership”, “Investment” and “Start Small and Grow”.
After lunch half the group met at the Sierra Forest Products mill in Terra Bella for an excellent and informative tour. We visited both saw lines, the power plant and the landscaping materials processing area. It is interesting to note that the mill buys in fuel (generally agricultural waste) for the power plant and converts most of mill residuals into landscaping products for the southern California market which helps to maximize product value.
Larry Duysen discusses the mill layout on the field tour
The presentations from the workshop are
here and we have also included the visioning exercise summary.
[Left to right] Discussing the handling of mill waste (residuals), chips and bark, processed bark, urban wood waste with power plant in background
