This summer marks the 100 year anniversary of what may have been the largest American forest fire.  It started in north Idaho and Montana of unknown causes, but possible suspects are the sparks from coal fired locomotives, campers and electrical storms.   In early August 1910 Bill Greely counted three thousand fires burning in his Forest Service District One that included 22 national forests and spanned 41 million acres in four states. Greely’s men, which numbered less than one man per fire and with scarce equipment, nonetheless managed to get most of the fires under control by August 19.  Then on Saturday, August 20, all hell broke loose.  Hurricane-force winds roared across the rolling Palouse country of eastern Washington and into Idaho and Montana forests that were crackling dry.  In a few hours small fires became firestorms, and millions of trees became exploding candles and millions more were sucked from the ground, roots attached. The sky became dark by mid-afternoon, except for the flying tree blow torches that blew from ridge top to ridge top.  Entire mountainsides ignited in an instant.  By noon on the twenty-first the skies were dark as far north as Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, as far south as Denver and as far east as Watertown, New York.  Before it was over 10,000 men were on fire lines from eastern Washington across the Idaho Panhandle and into western Montana.  Three million acres, including the finest white pine forest in the United States, were laid waste and 86 lives were lost. The fire left enough dead timber to fill a freight train 2,400 miles long.

 In the 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps crews were still clearing away dead timber from clogged trails and canyons.  Edward Koch, who fought the 1910 fire, described the aftermath in a book he wrote about his career in the Forest Service.  Between thirty and forty percent of what burned in 1910 burned again in subsequent fire seasons, thereby destroying a good deal of what had been replanted and grown back naturally. Where once great forests had grown, now there were only great fields of brush. Erosion became a major problem.  Koch states, “The fall rains brought down a vast amount of sheet erosion and many steep gullies were scoured out to bedrock.  To add to the problem, “nearly all of the scorched trees were attacked by bark beetles.”  By 1914 the beetles had moved into live timber and “the vicious circle of fire” went on for thirty more years. 

Most of what was burned black in 1910 is green again, but even now the seeds for the next catastrophic fire have been sown. If you look closely at much of Idaho’s national forests you will notice that in many places they have too many trees per acre, and the ground  is littered with dead and dying trees that have been falling for decades. In addition, mountain pine beetles are killing trees at an alarming rate. British Columbia has lost its huge lodge pole pine forests to beetles and the epidemic has moved into the northern U.S. at an alarming rate.  Since 1996 pine beetles have chewed through more than half of Colorado’s 2.2 million acres of lodge pole forest and have moved massively into Wyoming, Montana and Idaho national forests. One can reasonably speculate about  the causes of these problems, but in one sense what is causing them is less important than how we begin to better manage forest problems going forward. .  The Forest Service has been unable to effectively manage our national forests for well over a generation. Environmental law suits have nearly halted thinning and timber sales in national forests, and the Forest Service made mistakes with an earlier philosophy of suppressing all fires.  Fire is a natural method of forest management.  Healthy forests require periodic treatment by thinning and prescribed burning to prevent the type of dangerous fire situation we now have in our national forests.  The problem is that the national forests have been unmanaged for a long time, and the West has been in a fifty year drought. That combination of forest overcrowding and debris fuel buildup on the forest floor is creating much larger and hotter wildfires.  Stephen W. Running, Professor/Director of the Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, College of Forestry and Conservation at the University of Montana, told participants at a Boise Conference on Climate Change, Bioenergy and Sustaining the Forests of Idaho and Montana this spring, that recent Western wildfires have reached heat levels of 180 degrees on the forest floor.

Because so much available fuel feeds these fires, an extreme scorched earth effect results where new seedlings cannot grow. 

Another problem is that the costs of fighting these fires is huge and getting bigger each year.  In April 2009 the Western Forestry Leadership Coalition (WFLC) completed a study titled, “The True Cost of Wild fire in the Western U. S”.  The Coalition is a State and Federal partnership, which includes State and Federal Foresters, Regional Forestors, three western Research Station Directors, and the Forest Products Lab Director of the Forest Service.  The Coalition studied six major wildfires in the West from the years 2000 – 2003.  I personally witnessed one of these fires, the Cerro Grande, NM fire in 2000, which consumed nearly 43,000 acres and 260 residences as well as equipment and facilities at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).  18,000 people from nearby communities had to be evacuated and the fire caused extensive damage to utility infrastructure. 

We tend to think of the suppression costs of these fires as the main costs, but they are really the tip of the iceberg.  Suppression costs for the Cerro Grande fire were $33.5 million, but estimates of all direct and indirect costs were $970 million, and this is for a fire area with relatively low population density which resulted in limited damage to private property, However, the damage sustained by LANL and nearby cultural sites, such as the Puye Cliff Dwellings, were exceptionally expensive to repair.  Repairs at LANL were $138 million immediately following the fire and the U. S. Department of Energy spent an additional $208 million to replace damaged equipment and facilities.  A myriad of federal agencies provided additional short-term rehabilitation funding of $72.4 million.  Longer term rehabilitation costs include re-seeding and re-mulching, thinning and fuels reduction, and flood control.  Data on these longer term projects remain incomplete, but the conclusion of the Coalition after studying the six large Western wild fires since 2000 is clear:  Fire suppressions costs, which are often considered synonymous with the full costs of a wildfire, are only a fractions of the total costs associated with such an event.  Synthesis of case studies in the report reveals a range of total wildfire costs ranging from 2 to 30 times greater than the reported suppression costs.  The report states, “A more robust accounting of these costs would facilitate improvement in budgeting and planning processes at all levels of government and would lead to an understanding of the value of investing in hazardous fuels reduction and other forest management activities before a fire occurs.  Strategic and targeted active management can improve the health and resiliency of the land, while reducing fire hazard and associated costs of large fires.”

After years of confrontation between the timber industry and environmentalists which has brought forest management to a near stand still, there may be a way to break the vicious cycle that has damaged the well being of our national forests and better support the local communities in and near them.   In recent years there have been growing attempts to get environmentalists, timber industry representatives, citizen groups that use the national forests for recreation, and Forest Service officials to sit at the same table and talk about what interests they have in common that can help the Forest Service to better manage our national forests for sustainability, recreation, and economic purposes. The forests, as a sustainable natural resource,  and their associated rural communities will benefit from better forest management..

 The Payette Forest Coalition is one such group of citizens, conservationists, environmentalists, business and recreation representatives and government officials, which formed in June 2009.  The Coalition’s mission is to advise the Payette National Forest (PNF) line officers regarding the development, administration and monitoring of stewardship projects in order to achieve landscape scale (100,000 acres or more) conservation goals. Early on the Coalition defined its primary goals were to:  1) Improve wildlife habitat for species like white-headed woodpeckers and Elk by restoring appropriate forested stands to Historical Range of Variability; 2) Contribute to the economic vitality of the communities adjacent to the PNF; 3) Reduce wildfire hazard in forest stands with conditions that depart from the Historical Range of Variability; 4) Encourage woody biomass utilization from the stand treatments as a revenue source to achieve goals 1, 2 & 3.  After numerous meetings and on the ground tours with PNF staff and the Council District Ranger, the Coalition sent its recommendations to the PFN Supervisor in March 2010, and those recommendations are currently going through the National Environmental Protect Act (NEPA) process, including public comments. 

The initial recommendations pertain to treatments in a 52,000 acre area known as the Mill Creek – Council Mountain Landscape.  It is part of a larger 100,000 acre parcel, but the PNF staff needs additional time to gather data on the remaining acreage.   The Coalitions plans to address the remaining acreage in 2012.  In 2011 we will begin a new collaboration in the New Meadows area based on a request by the District Ranger there. 

I am proud to be a member of the Coalition. The exciting part of this collaboration process is that diverse groups of individuals and organizations are coming together to formulate goals that they have in common and that are achievable, despite individual differences.  I am not going to pretend that this is easy work.  There are heart felt differences of opinion and disagreements that arise that have to be reconciled, but we proved that when you treat each person and their viewpoint with respect, differences can be resolved for the good of the whole forest and the communities associated with it.  And that is something that hasn’t been achieved for quite some time.  My next article will elaborate more on the details of what we are trying to achieve and how we are going about it.

Yantis and Mink were representing the cattle industry to see what the Payette National forest had in mind for the proposed Mill Creek-Council Mountain Landscape Restoration Project.

About two dozen people went on the field trip that took Forest Service employees, members of the broad-based Payette forest Coalition and the public to four sites in the project area.

Public comment is important as the project moves into the study phase so that researchers can consider alternatives, said Greg Lesch, ranger for the Council and Weiser ranger districts.

"If we didn't come out and involve them and ask them for their input, we'd miss a lot of them because we just can't crystal ball what everybody wants and likes or doesn't understand, he said.

First Attempt

The work of the Payette forest Coalition represents the first attemp at a large collaborative ffort representing many interest groups working toward a common goal, Lesch said.

The project area is about 51,900 acres with the goal of improving wildlife habitat, reducing fire hazard, using more wood chips for fuel, improving watersheds and contributing to the economic vitality of nearby communities such as Council.

The trip included sites where roads are scheduled for improvement or shutdown, areas planned for tree thinning and a tree stand that would be restored through thinning and underburning.

Yantis and Mink's concerns included the possible presence of too many shrubs and not enough grass forbs for elk, deer and cattle to eat.

They were also concerned about some of the proposed roads to be built and some that are slated for being shut down.

"A lot of the old roads are used for cattle trails, wildlife trails and a lot of times I feel that taking them out will affect the habitat, the way the game move around and the livestock," Mink said.

"We thought we better come and try to get our points acress that we want to push before it's too late," he said.

Involvement from people like Yantis and Mink represent a voice that is different thant he one that Forest service has historically heard, said Maura Laverty, range specialist for the Concil and Weiser ranger districts.

"These guys are going to be involved from the get-go and so they'll feel like they had a say in what we're going to do and I think they'll be a lot more comfortable and a lot more workable with it," Laverty said.

Just west of Emmett – on land that once housed Boise Cascade Sawmill – the new venture marks the first step for Vinson and his partners toward their goal of bringing a new sawmill back to Southwest Idaho.

While some of the plant was brought online last week, over the next three weeks, the rest of the mill will start up. Some of the employees may have a unique investment in the operation – they have been working on construction of the plant.

“Most  of our workers will be from the area,” owner Vinson said.

When running at full capacity, the mill that will use mostly Douglas fir and Ponderosa pine will produce between 100,000 and 150,000 board feet per day. Using the latest in technology, eight cameras monitor the whole operation. This allows Vinson to watch what’s going on from anywhere.

Vision starts

When Boise Cascade closed the mill in 2001, the land sat vacant. But not for long. Within a couple of years, Vinson came from his Montana home in search of a place to open a new mill.

“Boise Cascade was tearing out some of their plant. It was a sweet spot for the business. Them leaving left a void that is close to lots of good markets,” Vinson said. So, he began to work to bring his vision to fruition.

He started logging when he was 16 and built his first mill in 1974. He also owns a sawmill in Trout Creek, Montana, and still has his Montana home, traveling to Emmett each week to work on the new mill.

So, much like a proud parent, he now looks on the operation that is ramping up to full production with a smile. Even though the location is on previous Boise Cascade ground, none of the equipment was left. Workers from Emerald Forest did some of the environmental cleanup at the location, he said.

A recent tour brought sort demonstration runs of the equipment that will handle logs up to 48 inches in diameter, much larger than what other nearby mills can cut. The computerized equipment will “optimize” each section of lumber within seconds, changing the settings on the saw to get the best and most cuts from each log.

The plant will produce construction lumber – 2-by-4s, furring strips and 4-by-4 timbers – and supply lumber for Boise’s lamentation beam plant that is next door. Contracts are in hand with retail outlets for the products.

Eventually, there will be a power plant on the property that will produce energy from slash – or biomass, the woody material left after timber harvest. The heat generated will be used to dry lumber and shavings; leftover electricity will be sold to Idaho Power.

When completed, the sawmill will be the only operational one within a 140-mile radius. Those employed at the mill will have family insurance – which Vinson is working with a local insurance company to provide – and a profit-sharing plan.

In addition to milled lumber, the operation will also produce dust-free shavings for horse bedding. This will be at a separate location in Gem County – west of the train tracks near Airport Road on Highway 52. As planned, this operation will employ five people, Vinson said.

In 2009, the project benefited from $4 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. About 80 percent of the remaining funding for $11.5 million operation comes from Visnon’s own pockets; there are two other partners – the Pruyn family estate of Missoula, Mont., and Emerald Forest Manager Dennis Drake.

Ribbon cutting

The Gem County Chamber of Commerce, working with the Gem County Commissioners, held a ribbon cutting on May 21 that about 300 people attended. There were a few speakers – competing for attention with the sounds of the mill working and the smell of freshly cut timber. Guests were able to don hard hats – some came in cowboy hard hats – and tour the facility. A video of the event will be sent to the White House.

Idaho Lt. Gov. Brad Little was the keynote speaker. He said this new business was a win-win for everyone involved. There will be an Idaho destination for the product left on the forest floor, more property taxes will help local governments and schools, jobs will employ people who can purchase items from other businesses, and the operation meets the latest environmental standards.

“Developing projects on the national forest that can reduce wildfire risks while providing marketable products is highly dependent on local sawmills and biomass facilities along with the development of markets for other types of wood products,” Cecilia Romero Seesholtz, forest supervisor for the Boise National Forest, said.

“This new facility is a significant help and wonderful improvement to effectively and cost efficiently move material from the national forest. Local functioning facilities that can process the increasing delivery of small-diameter wood materials, are critical to managing the current threats to the national forests.”

Reporter’s note: Just prior to its closure, MI reporter Janet Monti toured the Boise Cascade mill in Emmett, capturing a way of life that has been silent for nearly a decade. She is married to a man with a long history in the timber industry. In 1852, a Monti predecessor was given a 158,000-acre land grant from U.S. President Millard Fillmore to start felling trees in Bad Axe, Wis., now Known as Genoa, Wis.

Emmett will get more jobs. With the help of $4 million from federal taxpayers, a new sawmill built by Emerald Forest products will soon employ about 50 people, owner Richard Vinson says. A ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday will include speeches by Vinson and Lt. Gov. Brad Little.

The plant will use Douglas and white fir and Ponderosa pine to make 2-by-4, 2-by-6 and 4-by-4 boards, Vinson said. In addition to The Home Depot chain, customers include a Boise Cascade beam plant next door to the sawmill.

Vinson, who owns a sawmill in Trout Creek, Montana, began plans to build the mill on the site of an old Boise Cascade mill in 2002 with two other investors and $7.5 million. But he stopped work two years ago. “We ran out of money,” he said. “I have 80 percent interest and didn’t want to give away any more.”

But when Congress passé the economic stimulus law last year, Vinson saw an opening. He said the $4 million in federal stimulus money allowed him to resume building last year. He said he qualified for the grant because of the job opportunities his business will create.

“This is a real sweet spot because the nearest mill is 120 miles away,” he said. “Our goal and direction is to use the whole tree, from stump to store, doing it right.”

Vinson said the jobs will pay “way over $10 per hour,” with health insurance and possibly profit sharing.

Emmett residents seem pleased.

“This will help construction workers and those laid off when the mill shut down,” said E.J. Hadley, Les Schwab Tires associate.

The tire dealership has sold tires and other items to the plant during its construction. “We are helping them, and they are helping us,” he said. “It’s a good thing.”

Little, who lives in Emmett, said he expects the plant to help the state economy by raising much-needed revenue for schools. Private land in the Potlatch area will provide smaller wood, but much of the larger wood the sawmill uses will be cut on state land. Money from the sale of state wood will go to public schools.

“A lot of people with timber are going out of state, and public education is not getting the revenue,” he said.

Slash left from logging will fuel a power plant that will provide enough electricity to operate the mill, with some leftover to be sold to Idaho Power.

Small wood pieces will be turned into bagged shavings for horse bedding. The plant has a contract to provide horse bedding for the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas for the next five years, Vinson said.

Idaho Forest Products Commission Director Betty Munis said the state’s timber industry welcomes the mill. It’s the first new mill in Idaho since one opened in Grangeville in 2006, she said.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for us,” Munis said. “We need new jobs and highly skilled workers. The forest industry has been a historical part of our state, and we need to look to the future.”

First, the national forests will never return to the harvest levels of past decades.  The emphasis in the US Forest Service now is on stewardship of the forests and returning stands to historic conditions that predate the suppression efforts of agency for the last century.  There is no desire to enter into designated roadless areas, old growth stands and road construction will be held to a very minimum.  In fact in a recent effort that involved environmental groups and industry groups a “zone of agreement” was formed that any stand management on the Payette National forest would be done in the name of wildlife habitat improvement and returning stands to historic ecological conditions.  Stewardship will involve thinning on a commercial and pre-commercial basis and harvesting in stands to make them more fire resistant.  An emphasis will be placed on stands that are adjacent to communities that could be threatened by wild fire.

The second group wants to create jobs that would return us to more active management on the national forests and other forests in our area.  Appeals and litigation have tied the US Forest Service in knots as they have tried to management timber.  The commissioners and myself were instrumental in forming the Woody Biomass Utilization Partnership (WBUP) with the goal of increasing the utilization of woody biomass (read slash or logging or thinning debris) for use in value added products and for producing energy.  One of our goals was to form a coalition as mentioned in the previous paragraph.  This group has successfully made recommendations to the US Forest Service for active management on a landscape basis on Mill Creek/Council Mountain.  The agency is now going through the analysis process. 

This leads to the biomass fueled power plant proposal and to the economic viability of the communities in Adams County.  The coalition is making recommendations that would involve increasing the amount of biomass removed from the national forest and decreasing the amount that would be burned each fall.  The current proposed activities would produce about half the biomass needed to run the biomass generation plant.  Additional analysis will be conducted on the Council Ranger District and later on the New Meadows Ranger District.  The Boise National Forest is interested in working with a coalition on their forest.  It is hoped the management activities on the national forest, state lands and private lands will result in the fuels needed run the power plant on a 24/7 basis.

The overall effect is to create living wages jobs at the plant in the woods and in our communities that will benefit from the multiplier effect of the biomass activities.  Looking at Council we have many vacant store fronts, the school is struggling to provide a quality education and we lost our hospital almost 10 years ago.  Returning to what we do best, working in agriculture and in natural resources, makes sense for our rural communities.  The Adams County commissioners have strongly supported this effort since we started working on it in 2006.  As I like to say, “For every complex problem there is always a simple solution and it is always wrong.”  This is a complex issue.  Support the commissioners as they work to create living wage jobs in Adams County.  The viability of our communities depends on the success of this effort. 

One competitive advantage for Emerald is, unlike many compnaines, it does not have a supply of logs purchased at pre-2006 highs, he said. Situated on a location - "just begging for a mill here since Boise Cascade pulled out (in 2001)" - about 120 miles from a mill in Tamarack, and 170 miles from a mill in Elgin, Oregon, Emerald is close to a large local population base with access to other markets in the region. Beck Group Consulting, of Portland, completed a study that concluded the Emerald location and plan have good prospects, Vinson said.

Test runs and some phased production increases began at Emerald this month. All operations are expected to be oline in June, and up to full capacity in four months, he said. At full production, Emerald could employ 47 in a single shift, he said. Forty-four people, including construction personnel, are working on the site now. Vinson said one school of thought is that production costs are lower with two shifts, "but you have to go farther for logs, so your log costs are higher."

Emerald, 500 W. Main St., Emmett, will produce studs, pine boards, furring strips for concrete basements (available at The Home Deport in the region) and quality laminated beam stock for Boise Cascade's adjacent glue-laminated beam plant. Emerald is making 4-by-4 inch timbers, which many mills can't cut, Vinson said. Paw-Taw-John Services of Rathdrum supplied optimization ewuipment that uses computer scanning for precision cutting of each log, he said. Various sizes of bark for landscaping and dust-free shavings for animal bedding will be a side product, as logs are de-barked in part to meet paper company specifications, he said.

Yellowstone Power, a sister company to Emerald, plans a 10-megawatt biomass power plant on the mill property. Synergies include using waste heat to dry lumber and shavings instead of sending it through a traditional stack, he said. Yellowstone is expecting to sell power to Idaho Power. Emerald has three forest-thinning "stewardship" contracts to supply the renewable-energy operation. Other sources of supply include state timber sales, and oversized and undersized logs from other mills.

Financing for the Emmett project includes $4 million in federal economic stimulus money, received after the Emerald principals made a substantial investment in the venture, Vinson said. Dennis drake manages Emerald Forest Products.

by Pete Johnston

The Woody Biomass Utilization Partnership (WBUP) has received a financial contribution from Emerald Forest Products, Inc. of Emmett, Idaho.  Emerald Forest Products, Inc. is contributing $9000 over a three year period.  The WBUP is made up of Adams, Boise, Gem and Valley Counties.  The WBUP has been instrumental in bringing almost ten million dollars in grants to three companies and one school in Southwest Idaho.  The WBUP is an IRS certified non-profit in conjunction with SAGE Community Resources and is a public/private partnership.  The group is currently seeking financial contributions from benefiting organizations to continue operations and to assist entrepreneurs entering the woody biomass utilization business. 

Emerald Forest Products received a four million dollar grant of federal stimulus dollars.  The WBUP worked with the US Forest Service, State and Private Forestry  to fund four projects in Idaho.  The other three included $2.75 million for Garden Valley Schools for a biomass burner, $2.5 million for Evergreen Forest for new dry kilns and $500 thousand dollars to Treasure Valley Forest Products.  The stimulus dollars will maintain 40 jobs and create 80 direct jobs at these facilities and an untold number of maintained and created jobs in forest operations.

The WBUP works to create and sustain living wage jobs in our rural communities using the natural resources available from National Forest land, State lands and private forests.  This group, along with Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF), is responsible for establishing the Payette Forest Coalition, a collaborative group made up of industry, local government, private interests, and environmental groups working together to provide the Payette National Forest with management recommendations for wildlife habitat improvement and restoring forest stands to historic ecological conditions.  WBUP also secured funding to complete inventories of available future wood biomass supplies for Southwest Idaho. This is the Southern Idaho Coordinated Resource Offering Protocol (CROP) www.crop-usa.com  

The WBUP is funded through the Idaho Rural Initiative administered by the Idaho Department of Commerce, grants and funds from the member counties and industry groups.  It is anticipated the Rural Initiative program will be reauthorized for an additional three years in the near future.

The electrical generation plant at Evergreen Forest Products works well because it is located next to a sawmill, said brothers and co-owners Rodney and Mark Krogh.

“In difficult economic times the sawmill and the (plant) help each other,” Rodney Krogh said.

Adams county officials are considering whether to build an electricity generating plant west of Council with fuel harvested from nearby forests.

At Evergreen, money paid by Idaho Power Co. to purchase electricity made by the plant is invested in the sawmill to buy timber, Mark Krogh said.

In turn, it is the steady supply of bark, wood chips and sawdust from the sawmill that provides the plant with enough fuel to operate, he said.

The plant turns by-products of the logging process into energy by feeding them into a boiler. The boiler heats water which turns into steam, which rotates a turbine to create power.

The six megawatt plant, opened in 1983, burns 100,000 tons of wood per year at a capacity, which creates enough electricity for 4,000 to 5,000 homes. The fuel is supplied mostly from the sawmill with about 20% coming from private and public lands, Rodney Krogh said.

The recession has resulted in decreased lumber production which in turn has affected the amount of fuel available to the plant, Rodney Krogh said.

“During this economic downturn the last two years, the sawmill has downsized to what they can sell, in turn we only could run it at 60 percent because we couldn’t get the fuel anywhere else,” he said.

Sixty percent is the lowest capacity at which the plant can be run and still fulfill its contracts to sell the electricity to Idaho Power, Rodney Krogh said.

“We’ve never had an issue going under that amount,” he said. “Now we’re starting to see some signs that the industry is turning around, so starting Nov. 2, the sawmill will run at full capacity again.”

A potential problem for Adams County operating a plant is ensuring a stable supply of fuel, Rodney Krogh said.

“That’s the most critical step, is having enough to meet your contract obligations,” he said.

Supplies vary based on competition from other companies and weather conditions that inhibit cutting it from the forest, he said.

On the other hand, if fuel supplies get too large, they can internally combust, which creates a fire hazard, Mark Krogh said.

Having a sawmill next to the plant enables them to more easily balance all of these factors, Mark Krogh said. “To power one of these things without a sawmill would be a stretch,” he said.

Rodney Krogh said he is supportive of the Adams County plan to build a plant.

“I do have a lot of respect for the county commissioners and what they’re trying to do bringing jobs to the areas,” he said.

Fueling the plant could become problematic because the county would have to rely on harvests from public and private lands, Rodney Krogh said.

“You just don’t want to be in breach of contract with the power companies,” he said.

Adams County leaders are still bullish on the idea of bringing in a company to build a facility that will utilize woody biomass to create jobs for the county.

But they are exercising some caution before making any rushed decisions on who to partner up with in constructing such a facility and won’t be tossing large amounts of county money around until more details emerge.

In September, the county released a Request for Quote (RFQ) that solicited corporations to bid on partnering with the county to create a ten-megawatt, biomass utilizing power plant somewhere within the county.

The RFQ contained a quick timeline, in which a corporate partner selection would be made by the end of this month.

On Tuesday, the Adams County Commissioners opened the bids and found only one company had offered to partner with the county to design, build, own, operate and maintain the plant.

That company, McKinstry, a mechanical construction and engineering firm headquartered in Seattle, was the same outfit that proposed such a power plant to the county earlier this year. In fact, McKinstry authored the RFQ using the template they used for a similar project in northern Idaho’s Shoshone County.

While the commissioners remain intrigued by the possibility of creating a natural resource based economy in Adams County, they agreed that there are still too many variables to sort through and steps to take before entering into any agreements with a specific company.

“I’m worried about making an unnecessarily quick commitment to a particular firm,” said Commission Chairman Bill Brown in explaining his preference to cast aside the streamlined timeframe of the original RFQ in favor of a more judicious, deliberate approach.

The county is receiving guidance through this process from the Woody Biomass Working Group (WBWG), who had initially recommended that the county fast-track the selection process in order to qualify for grant money that may be available immediately. The commissioners, however, chose to let these early grant opportunities slide, so they can make a more deliberate and informed decision before committing any county dollars to the project.

“I don’t have any problem with slowing the process down,” said WBWG representative Pete Johnston. “But I have a big problem with doing nothing.”

The commissioners assured Johnston, that they were not tabling the concept, but merely withholding a rush to judgment on it.

“The timeline on this thing was just too fast,” explained Brown. “There are still so many questions we need answered. We don’t want to get trapped.”

The two biggest hurdles to this project are guaranteeing the energy supply (woody biomass) and nailing down the rate for which the power produced by the plant would be sold to Idaho Power.

The supply issue is probably of the greatest concern. Commissioner Mike Paradis has been working with the Forest Service and other interested parties to gauge the  plausibility of assuring that the forest can provide the necessary amount of fuel to run a ten-megawatt operation.

Most are skeptical at this time. To run the power plant for one year would require 142,000 tons of woody biomass. And while the Forest Service has expressed a desire to see this material removed from the forest to provide for wildlife conservation and reduce the risk of fire, it will be a tall order to secure any assurance that the forest can provide that amount on a year-in-year-out basis.

“They’re sincere in their goal of helping us,” Paradis said of Payette National Forest leaders. “But they can’t guarantee anything.”

The other critical issue is securing a rate from Idaho Power that would enable the plant to be profitable. The rate that Idaho Power is currently paying on the open market has risen sharply in recent years, but the commissioners had been cautioned earlier in the process not to count on being able to lock in those rates long-term.

With such crucial elements unclear, the county is opting for a wait-and-see approach.

“We don’t want to be hasty,” concluded brown. “And while we may be sidestepping the original intent (of the RFQ) a bit, we’re still focused on the big goal, which is to provide and create jobs in the county.”

Adams County Commissioners are proposing to build an electricity generating plant fueled with wood chips adjacent to the Goodrich Landfill west of Council.

The project is expected to create jobs in the region to supply the fuel for the plant from nearby forest as well as revenues from Idaho Power Co. to purchase the power.

The proposed $25 million plant would produce 10 megawatts of electricity. That is about twice the capacity of a similar plant that has operated for the past 25 years at the Evergreen Forest Product sawmill west of New Meadows.

Construction could start in two years and take 16 months to complete, the project description said.

The Goodrich site was chosen because the county owns the land and because of its close proximity to power lines, Adams County Commissioner Bill Brown said.

“It’s prudent that whoever puts in the project own the property,” Brown said.

“I remember what it was like around here, well in all these rural communities, back in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, they (were) healthy vibrant economies, and now our biggest export in Adams County is our children,” Commissioner Mike Paradis said.

The number of jobs created could top 100, including those at the plant and entrepreneurs supplying the trees for fuel, said Pete Johnston, Adams County’s liaison for the Woody Biomass Utilization Partnership.

The project would be funded jointly with private and governmental funds, Brown said.

“We’re hoping with the two connections…with private money as well as governmental avenues to be able to get money, it’ll turn into something viable,” he said.

Fuel Supply a Question

Although the commissioners began reviewing applications from energy developers on Tuesday, Brown expressed hesitation about moving forward with the project because the supply of fuel has not been established.

“Yes we’ve got the amount of fuel around here, but will anybody release it?” he said.

Another worry is whether or not there will be entrepreneurs willing to invest in expensive equipment to harvest trees and convert them into usable fuel, Johnston said.

“The negative aspect of it is we’re in a recession right now. Are they willing to take the risk to invest in the equipment and really get into this business?” he said.

There should be enough fuel for the plant from federal lands controlled by the Payette National Forest, state land controlled by the Idaho Department of Lands and private lands controlled by Potlatch Corp., said Bob Giles, natural resources staff officer with the Payette forest.

“I am optimistic should that plant be built they’ll have enough fuel for it” Giles said.

“We will not put our small county at risk by signing on the dotted line and jumping up and down thinking we made the best deal since sliced bread,” Brown said.  “Somebody is going to have to convince us that the risk is so minimal to the outcome.”

Power Rate Unknown

Another component in determining if the county has a feasible project is establishing a rate with Idaho Power Co.

The commissioners went to Boise on Wednesday to present a project description to Idaho Power officials in hopes of demonstrating that they have a legitimate proposal.

“They don’t really want to purchase power other than their own,” Johnston said. “They put up hurdles for us to go over, but the hurdles are pretty substantial.”

It will take at least another two to three meetings before the county will be able to establish a rate with the company, Johnston said.

After the meeting with Idaho Power, the commissioners plan to re-evaluate the project, do more research, and plan their next step. This could include hiring a consultant to help them through the process.

“We need to slow up,” Brown said. “I would rather miss the boat then get on the boat and have the boat sink.”

Brown said there are several entities that would like to see the project succeed.

“I think there’s other agencies and groups that’d love to see us succeed because it’d allow us to take a lot of potential hazardous fuels out of the forest to be able to turn it into something,” he said.

The Forest Service is one of the supporting agencies, Giles said.

“Rather than burning slash in the woods and creating smoke and particulate pollution, we’d rather see this biomass used to produce green energy,” he said.

The Payette Forest coalition is off to a good start in its altruistic goal of finding middle ground between conservationists, sportsmen, public agencies and the timber industry, but the group will need good luck and fortitude to hold the coalition together.

On its face, it seems impossible that any progress could come from such a collection of interest groups, companies, agencies and individuals. Upwards of 50 people have attended their meetings, where just trying to stay on the agenda musts (sic) be a daunting task. Yet, here they are, working with apparent success toward a large project near Council that would cover 50,000 acres of the Payette National Forest.

The plan calls for wildlife habitat improvement through forest thinning and other projects. The goal is to create more timber industry jobs while at the same time creating fire-resistant forests and better habitat for fish and wildlife.

The battles (sic) lines between the various sides have softened over the years due to political and economic changes. The national forests are no longer a major contributor to the nation’s timber supply due to ever more stringent regulations from the Forest Service. At the same time, the timber industry has been decimated by years of decline and has lost much of its political  clout. Meanwhile, the environmental movement has gained strength and become wealthy from  donations by maturing, green-minded Baby Boomers and now has an equal place at any table talking about use of public lands.

Even with this leveling of the playing field, there is still danger for the coalition in the form of fringe elements and from the Payette forest itself. If the coalition is seeking consensus for each project, then it may find itself forced to compromise in the face of protests from hardliners on either side. It is up to the more moderate members of industry and advocacy groups to rein in their more feisty brethren.

The Payette, which initially said it would take a benign role in the process, now is trying to control the agenda by “suggesting” the size of the Council project. It would be best if the Payette kept its promise and let the coalition do its work, otherwise any cooperation could quickly unravel.

There are many reasons why the Payette Forest Coalition should succeed given the current psychological climate.  Let’s hope that backward-thinking radicals don’t try to turn over the meeting table.

The construction of a new dry kiln at Evergreen Forest’s Tamarack Mill, a project started thanks to a $2.5 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant, is nearing completion.

According to company personnel, it is estimated that over 100 people have benefitted from the employment opportunities associated with the construction of the kilns, the manufacture of steel and equipment for the facility, and the increased demand on local merchants.

Additionally, increased productivity that the kiln will generate will ensure the company’s viability and keep those already employed at the mill working for at least several years.

The kiln project will eliminate the need for hauling green lumber 112 miles away to be dried and planed. The new dry kiln will be heated with wood energy – biomass that comes from local timber projects on federal, private, and state land.

Rodney Krogh, project manager and part of family-owned Evergreen forest Products explains that the company expects the cost savings from the efficiencies gained in drying and transporting lumber will enable him to secure more raw timber supply and to hire additional people to operate the planer and increase the mill’s processing capacity.

They’ve added an extra shift and plan to add even more employees next year.

“Everybody was hungry,” said Krogh. “You don’t know how appreciative folks are. Lots of Adams County residents have benefitted from this project both in the construction phase and at the mill operations.”

Without the stimulus money, the mill would likely have continued to flounder in a hostile market that doesn’t provide the profit margin to make large-scale infrastructure investments like this one.

“We could have never afforded a project like this on our own,” said Krogh. “Our employees are ecstatic because it provides them job security they otherwise wouldn’t have.”

Because having a kiln on-site will reduce their production costs, the mill will be able to use what capital it does have for smaller, but necessary, investments such as new machinery. Most importantly, it will allow the company to retain the employees it dies have while providing new jobs for other people in the county.

The construction of a new dry kiln at Evergreen Forest’s Tamarack Mill, a project started thanks to a $2.5 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant, is nearing completion.

According to company personnel, it is estimated that over 100 people have benefitted from the employment opportunities associated with the construction of the kilns, the manufacture of steel and equipment for the facility, and the increased demand on local merchants.

Additionally, increased productivity that the kiln will generate will ensure the company’s viability and keep those already employed at the mill working for at least several years.

The kiln project will eliminate the need for hauling green lumber 112 miles away to be dried and planed. The new dry kiln will be heated with wood energy – biomass that comes from local timber projects on federal, private, and state land.

Rodney Krogh, project manager and part of family-owned Evergreen forest Products explains that the company expects the cost savings from the efficiencies gained in drying and transporting lumber will enable him to secure more raw timber supply and to hire additional people to operate the planer and increase the mill’s processing capacity.

They’ve added an extra shift and plan to add even more employees next year.

“Everybody was hungry,” said Krogh. “You don’t know how appreciative folks are. Lots of Adams County residents have benefitted from this project both in the construction phase and at the mill operations.”

Without the stimulus money, the mill would likely have continued to flounder in a hostile market that doesn’t provide the profit margin to make large-scale infrastructure investments like this one.

“We could have never afforded a project like this on our own,” said Krogh. “Our employees are ecstatic because it provides them job security they otherwise wouldn’t have.”

Because having a kiln on-site will reduce their production costs, the mill will be able to use what capital it does have for smaller, but necessary, investments such as new machinery. Most importantly, it will allow the company to retain the employees it dies have while providing new jobs for other people in the county.

this is the body

A broad-based group is organizing to aid the Payette National Forest to improve its forest health, wildlife habitat and find fuel for biomass generation.

The Payette Forest Coalition includes conservationists, sportsmen, loggers, county officials and others. The concept is tarting up across the region, including the Clearwater country.

"It's sort of a broad-based collaborative group trying to find solutions, a consensus on forest management," said Jonathan Oppenheimer, senior associate with the Idaho Conservation League.

They have taken a field trip near Council and met yesterday in McCall.

Over the years, the timber industry in Idaho has faltered from such things as lawsuits and shifting forest management. Traditional fire suppression also halted the clearing of dead and decadent vegetation.

The result is some areas are choked with that vegetation, which is bad for big-game habitat, as well as setting the scene for catastrophic fires.

The coalition was convened by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, which is interested in improving wildlife habitat both for game species and varieties that are in decline because of the reduced quality of that habitat. The Payette National forest is a member of the coalition, but not the driving force.

"We're looking forward to being engaged," Oppenheimer said. "We see a lot of potential, both for the Forest Service and wildlife landscape, as well as revenue to the local economy."

"We want to apply some new approached to forest management that emphasize restoration."

The timeline is to define and recommend a project on the Payette forest by December, to then roll it through the National Environmental  Policy Act (NEPA) including scientific review and public input into the new year.

Biomass represents the forest overgrowth and small-diameter logs, which can be used to generate power through generators, and goes to heat the Council schools. The coalition's work won't free up biomass in the near term, but could lead toward that over the long run, said Morris huffman, coordinator of the Woody Biomass Utilization Partnership, an effort by the local counties to boost the economy through biomass.

A freak 2006 tornado toppled an extensive amount of forest in Adams County, which also funneled interests in biomass there. Work also has been done to treat the forest around Yellow Pine to protect the community from wildfire.

"It's not one thing," Huffman said of the coalition. "It's going to have a lot of drivers. Biomass is part of the output."

He said that while the initial review has looked at the Weiser River territory, ultimately, the biomass could come from elsewhere on the forest.

Stewardship projects are on the increase, which allows the thinning of forest to improve its conditions. Private contractors do the work, often in exchange for the timber they may pull out. County officials have pointed  out that the stewardship projects don't provide the 25 percent payment back to the counties that have been in place since the early days of the Forest Service.

Huffman said stewardships work still put people to work and produce material that can be used by the timber industry.

Oppenheimer said there are similar efforts going on around Idaho, including the Owyhee Mountains and the Clearwater area.

Idaho's congressional delegation, including U.S. Rep. Walt Minnick, are working on collaborative efforts. Shoshone county also is looking at a biomass-energy plant.

The town of Tamarack, Idaho has a new mill construction project adjacent to Highway 95. Evergreen Forest Products received $2.5 million in American Recovery and reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds to construct kilns. The kilns will dry about 45 million board feet of dimension lumber annually. A co-gen facility at the mill has the capacity to generate 6 megawatts of electricity. The heat derived from burning bark and other wood "waste" is the source of energy to dry the lumber. The company anticipates operation of the first kiln to begin October 1, 2009.

The national ARRA Summary Report designated the $2.5 million in the category of Wildland Fire Management. At first blush, a capital investment in kilns appears to manage only the fire that heats the kilns. However, a review of the mill's supply chain uncovers the wildland fuel reduction benefits, as well as relationships to other communities, renewable energy, and forest habitat for wildlife. The ARRA dollars not only simulate local economies, but may also build momentum for restoration efforts on the Payette National Forest

Denver, CO (September 2, 2009). Hard times have  hit our western rural communities and our forested landscapes. The loss of an economically-viable forest products industry has put our western forests and communities in great peril. As our new administration delivers a new vision for forests, the Western Forestry Leadership Coalition (WFLC) - a group of state and federal forestry leaders - released their new video and recommendations on how revitalizing the forestry sector will play a critical role in the restoration of our nation's forests and economies.

"Our recommendations could not come at a better time", comments Pete Anderson, Nevada State Forester and State-Chair of the WFLC. The economic downturn has led to permanent mill closures resulting in a 25% decrease in employment and a 35% decrease in labor income since 2005. "We have a new emphasis on the need to revitalize our economy and now a new vision to restore our forests. The Coalition's recommendations work with both," states Anderson.

Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, recently outlined  a new vision for the future of our nation's forests. He recognized that forests help generate rural wealth through the creation of green jobs, and that the production of wood products and energy calls for forest restoration that leads to non-traditional markets for climate change mitigation and biomass energy while appropriately recognizing the need for more traditional uses of forest resources. He also stated that the Foret Service must protect and maintain all American forests, including state and private lands.

The video and recommendations are just one of the Coalition's strategic initiatives focused on keeping working forests working. The Coalition's work on other issues such as wildfire coordination and suppression funding,  forest health, and economic recovery all support the Secretary's vision.

"The WFLC and the collaborative work of its partners are key components to the kind of work  we do and our ability to create and sustain healthy forests," states Rick Cables, USFS Rocky Mountain Regional forester and Federal-Chair of the WFLC. These partnerships must go beyond federal and state agreements; they need to include the private sector and, most importantly, collaborate with local communities. It's just a good way of doing business."

The Western forestry Leadership Coalition's video provides a tapestry of conversations and landscapes demonstrating how and why a vibrant forest products industry - a green jobs industry - stimulates the economy while also creating healthy forest. The accompanying briefing paper lays out related issues and offers clear, practical recommendations from the WFLC. The recommendations include:

Explore new markets for small diameter logs and woody biomass,

Link ecological and economic forest management goals,

Compete globally to mainain the benefits of forests,

Rethink traditional markets,

Explore innovative uses for wood, and

Enhance federal, state, and private forestry partnerships.

To view the video and download the handout, please go to http://www.wflcweb.org/infomaterials/brochures_presentations.php. You may also order copies of the handout through the contact information at the top of the page.

The Western Forestry Leadership Coalition is a unique state-federal partnership working with the people and resources in the west. The WFLC 34-person membership consists of western State and Territorial Forestry Agencies and the US Forest Service: western Regional Foresters, Research Station Directors, and the Forest Products Lab Director. The Coalition has staff support based in Denver, CO. Their mission is to promote science-based forest management that serves the values of society and ensures the health and sustainability of western forests. For more information please visit www.wflcweb.org.

Catastrophic wildfire risks are high in public forest lands due to ever increasing fuel loads. Biomass fuels accumulate due to continuing forest growth, while effective fire suppression efforts have decreased cyclic consumption by natural, low-level fires. To decrease the risk of stand replacing wildfires, public land managers are mechanically removing fuels from millions of acres nationwide, but costs are staggering.

·         Utilizing forest biomass to produce an energy product could offset costs of mechanical biomass removal including post-fire salvage logging. However, transporting bulky biomass to central processing facilities must be minimized or eliminated in order to make forest bioenergy production viable.

·         Portable pyrolysis units convert biomass into bio-oil in the woods. Bio-oil can substitute for fuel oil, or be used as a crude oil and further refined into higher value products (1). Transporting dense, high-value bio-oil is much more cost effective than transporting bulky, low-value biomass.

·         In-woods bio-oil production through pyrolysis also tackles concerns over removing carbon and nutrients from forest sites. A byproduct of pyrolysis is bio-char, which is equivalent to the charcoal found in fire ecosystems.

·         Bio-char retains most of the carbon and nutrients contained in biomass and can be used as a soil amendment to enhance soil productivity. Bio-char produced by portable pyrolysis can be left at the field site to maintain soil fertility and soil carbon; which is not a possibility with centralized pyrolysis facilities, again, due to high transport costs.

·         Charcoal is known to remain stable in soils for hundreds or thousands of years. It resists microbial decay that break down biomass into simple compounds, including greenhouse gases. Such long bio-char residence times allow carbon removed from the atmosphere by growing forests to indefinitely sequestered in soil (2).

Replacing fossil fuel with bio-oil and storing carbon in soil with bio-char draws down atmospheric carbon more than other renewable energy schemes and as a consequence may include carbon trading revenue (3).

To assist the development of such ideas, we have assembled a multi-disciplinary, inter-organizational project composed of the following collaborators:

·         The Umpqua National Forest is hosting this work because of their need to reduce hazard fuels in fire-prone forests ecosystems and a keen interest in maintaining soil productivity.

·         Renewable Oil International® LLC, is providing portable pyrolyzer capable of operating at forestry field locations.

·         The University of Montana is evaluating the economics of in-woods conversion and the avoided need to transport biomass against a centralized pyrolysis plant requiring biomass transport.

·         The IFTNC and the Rocky Mountain Research Station are evaluating the impact of biomass removal and char amendments on soil fertility, soil carbon, and forest production compared to removal-only.

For more information contact Mark Coleman, Department of Forest resources, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844-1133, mcoleman@uidaho.edu, 208-885-7604.

1.       Bader, P.C. and P. Fransham, Use of mobile fast pyrolysis plants to densify biomass and reduce biomass handling costs – A preliminary assessment. Biomass and Bioenergy, 2006. 30(4): p. 321-325.

2.       Glaser, B., J. Lehmann, and W. Zech, Ameliorating physical and chemical properties of highly weathered soils in the tropics with charcoal – a review. Biology and Fertility of Soils, 2002. 35(4): p. 219-230.

3.       Laird, D.A., The Charcoal Vision: A Win Win Win Scenario for Simultaneously Producing Bioenergy, Permantly Sequestering Carbon, while Improving Soil and Water Quality. 2008. p. 178-181.

The Woody Biomass Utilization Partnership (WBUP) has signed an MOU with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) pledging to work together on mutual interest projects in Southwestern Idaho dealing with biomass and improvement of wildlife habitat. On most projects, biomass needs to be removed to allow for better wildlife habitat, especially for optimum elk habitat. Most stands contain more trees than is healthy for an area to try to grow, and it alters the amount of habitat species available for big game like elk. Many of the stands that are overcrowded are also very susceptible to fire. If the stand is consumed by a high intensity wildfire, then there is very little habitat reamining for elk for many years. The RMEF is working with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to undertake long-term stewardship contracts. The contracts are mostly in the Owyhee Mountains where the juniper has invaded the cattle grazing lands and shaded out the grasses. Removal of the junipers will start the restoration process for getting better grass species restored to the lands helping both the cattle, big game, and other small game species. The plans call for the juniper to be cut, removed, and then made into chips or other value-added products. The chips could be sold to help fuel a cogeneration facility. In this case, a cogeneration facility is a power plant fueled on wood that produces steam to be used by another user, but that electric power is also produced for sale to companies such as Idaho Power. These long-term stewardship contracts help give the cogeneration facility operators a steady reliable supply of fuel. Since the current practice is to cut the juniper and leave it in place and then use a prescribed fire to reduce the fuel load, less smoke and other pollution will be put into the atmosphere.

As other projects of interest come on line, some of the emphasis will move to the Boise and Payette National Forests that have numerous acres that need treatment to reduce the fuel loading, reducing the wildfire hazards. These projects might be in second growth or around the homes that neighbor the Forest and are threatened by wildfire. These areas are called wild-land urban interface zones, and many communities close to the Forests in southwest Idaho are in need of treatment.

Both groups are looking forward to beginning this partnership and enhancing both of their missions at the same time. If you would like more information, call Dave Torell, RMEF, at 208-559-0281, or Morris Huffman, WBUP,  at 208-631-4082.

The power station at Cascade used the Payette River's force to generate energy for local consumption. The station produced power from this renewable source, without relying on external suppliers. Energy independence drove the cents that enabled a forest products industry to produce lumber for decades. Hallack and Howard Lumber Company operated a sawmill in Cascade until they sold to Boise Cascade in 1960. Forest products continued as an economic mainstay until the mill closed in 2001, part of the Boise Cascade transition to an office products company. The mill closure impacted the community, and residents have explored other economic development prospects, including the recreation development.

A workshop held in the Cascade American Legion Hall April 16th explored a very different future for a forest based industry in the region - small wood biomass as a renewable energy source. The speakers covered a range of market strategies distinct from the traditional sawlog based forest industry of the region. The Payette Power station, and the 1940's dam that created Cascade reservoir, produced energy to convert logs to lumber. The potential 21st century forest industry will convert biomass to energy. The product, electricity, would be transported to energy buyers on the grid. National and state energy policy has set the target - 25% of electricity sourced from renewable resources by the year 2025. The goal has created a cascade of interest in forest biomass, as well as wind, solar and geothermal.

Located in the middle of the Boise and Payette national forest, Long Valley is awash in woody biomass.

It's the dog-haired trees and bushes that are supposedly too small for any commerical production, as well as standing and downed dead trees.

The Small Wood Biomass Worskshop held last Thursday included hours of discussion about converting all that material into an income, or helping out the community such as the Fuels for Schools system which heats the schools in Council.

"The main thing is we're trying to find something that will create some jobs. You can use biomass for post-and-pole operations, a pellet mill, maybe cogeneration cellulosic ethanol," said Valley County Commissioner Gordon Cruickshank, who attended the gathering in Cascade.

The workshop was arranged through the Central Highlands Resource Conservation and Development Council. The RC&D is intended to use natural resources to help the economies of local rural counties.

Woody biomass grows constantly on the forest. With the trend moving away from supressing every wildfire, that growth chokes out other species and can fuel disastrous fires such as the 2007 blazes which swept across Valley County.

Yet, if entrepeneurs and others can access the biomass and extract it, they can earn a profit and help in forest health.

"In our county and adjacent ones, if your hauling cost is reasonable, you're looking at a job market," Cruickshank said.

Those markets can include wood pellets for heating, turning lodgepole into fencing or cellulosic ethanol that can be used in motors like ethanol created from corn or other sources. Cruickshank said one plus is that dead trees no matter their age can still be made into ethanol. For other uses, those trees, such as ones burned in a fire, must be harvested quickly.

The Council School District used to pour thousands of dollars into outmoded oil and electric heaters. Council is surrounded by thousands of acres of brush and small trees chopped into slash and burned. Council Superintendent Murray Dalgleish and the community in 2005 developed Idaho's first public school biomass heating system that was expected to save the district $1 million on fuel over 15 years.

The material is chipped and then used in a boiler to heat the school district buildings.

A $6 million hazardous fuel-cutting project on the Boise and Payette national forests is among $751 million in stimulus funding.

The Boise-Payette fuel project will be used to generate renewable energy. The project includes thinning on approximately 4,200 acres on the Boise National Forest and 3,800 acres on the Payette. Once thinning is complete, 34,100 tons of biomass from the Payette National Forest will be chipped and used for biomass energy and 3,000 tons of biomass on the Boise will be made into various wood by-products.

Cruickshank warned that the costs of extracting the biomass and transferring it from one hauler to another can make the chances of profiting or even breaking even harder.

Several types of equipment have been used to chop the trees, move and chip them. A "stinger steered trailer" can be wheeled right to the trees and go to work.

Cruickshank said John Deere is building a bundler that grabs the small green trees, collects them into bundles and wraps them up with twine so they can be easily hauled to a chipper.

Another obstacle is the distance between the source of the biomass and  a sawmill or other plant.

"If you're much past an hour drive time,  you're eating up the margin," said Bob Giles with the Payette National Forest.

The federal government currently supports the utilization of biomass, but only in forms such as wood pellets for heating. That leaves out extracting the cellulose in the wood to create ethanol fuel. U.S. Rep. Walt Minnick last week said it was an oversight that he is working to correct.

There are markets out there. Joe Koontz of Potlatch said it has been selling its biomass for 23 years, notably in the Longview, Wash., area.

"Fire is one of the primary reasons for doing this," he said.

Parma Post and Pole has been in business for 25 years and diversified to be successful in these times. Cruickshank said the company creates fence posts out of material far smaller than large pines. It also produces furniture-grade wood that can be used for items such as log beds. It also has gone into  pressure-treated products.

Cruickshank recently attended a gathering in Golden, Colo., which suggested diversification that uses the same materials, but delves into different technologies. Companies could go into  production in the fall for pellets, or ethanol at another point.

Over 100 participants from the logging industry, non-profit groups, trade organizations, and government attended a Woody Biomass Utilization Workshop in Cascade on April 16 to discuss the creation of a new industry focused on small wood utilization and energy generation. "This workshop provides a great opportunity for potential entrepreneurs to interface with those already in the logging industry to discuss innovative new methods for utilization of small diameter wood products that would otherwise contribute to the severity of wildfires" said Morris Huffman, coordinator of the Woody Biomass Utilization Partnership, a southwestern Idaho working group that includes Adams, Boise, Gem, and Valley counties. The workshop focused on the following themes: how to develop a start-up business, where to find funding for the business, and how to ensure an adequate supply of wood product to keep the business going.

Mike Sterling, owner of Parma Post and Pole, discussed the various techniques and equipment used in the manufacture of finished products from logs between 3"-8" in diameter. He also noted that he is a purchaser of logs for his post and fencing operations. Dick Vinson from Renewable Energy of Idaho, Inc. discussed the development of a wood to energy heat and electricity co-generation plant that is slated to be built in the area. The plant will be powered by wood waste removed from private and public lands.

Funding is also available from the government to assist those interested in starting up their own business. Tim Wheeler of USDA Rural Development discussed energy program grants that are available to new and exising businesses. Bob Swandby from the Idaho Department of commerce talked about how his agency can help with putting together winning grant applications or the development of a business plan. Scott bell from the Forest Service office in Ogden, UT discussed how significant funding for woody biomass utilization is available from economic stimulus funding.

On the supply side, Bob Giles of the Payette National Forest discussed his agency's efforts to develop long-term stewardship contracts on National Forest lands that would allow logging contractors to remove a certain amount of biomass over several years. Finally, Catherine Mater, owner of Mater engineering, discussed the development of several CROP studies that are being conducted in Idaho. Coordinated Resource Offering Protocols or "CROPs" are essentially inventories of available biomass on public and private lands in Idaho. Once studies are complete in summer 2009, the results will be made available to the public and should give entrepreneurs a better sense of where to locate their businesses in order to guarantee adequate supply.

Contacts:

Morris Huffman, Woody Biomass Utilization Partnership, 208-631-4082

If you are interested in having a biomass workshop in your community, contact Brett Ingles, Boise State University, 208-426-2844.

Fact Sheet #5   

Environmental Benefits of Using Biomass as an Energy Feedstock  

Biomass, in the renewable energy context, refers to living or recently dead biological materials that can be used as fuel or for industrial production. Biomass materials are used as a source of energy in many ways. Wood and agricultural residues are burned as a fuel for cogeneration of steam and electricity in the industrial sector, or directly for power generation in the electricity sector. Biomass  is used for space heating in residential and commercial buildings. For example, the University of Idaho saves $2 million per year by heating the campus with steam produced by burning wood instead of natural gas.  

 Environmental benefits are the most important of the many reasons for increased use of biomass to produce electricity. Substitution is the key idea. Every unit of energy produced with biomass keeps a like unit of fossil fuels in the ground. Compared with coal, for example, biomass feedstocks have lower levels of sulfur or sulfur compounds. Perhaps the most significant environmental benefit of biomass, however, is a potential reduction in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Biomass-based generation is assumed to yield no net emissions of CO₂  because plants capture and store CO₂ as part of the natural carbon cycle. Wood and other biofuels are said to contain “biogenic” carbon. Under international greenhouse gas accounting methods developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, biogenic carbon is part of the natural carbon balance and it will not add to atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. The emission factor is zero for wood, wood waste, and other biomass fuels.^1/  

 In a life-cycle sense, however, biomass burning is not precisely a net zero emission process. There are CO₂ emissions associated with harvesting, transportation, and feedstock preparation operations, such as removal of impurities and reduction of moisture and particle size. Emissions arise from fossil fuel consumption for those operations rather than from biomass combustion. Coal and other fossil fuels also produce emissions from such operations.  

 Dry wood is about half carbon by weight and also contains sulfur and nitrogen, which yield sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxide (NO_x) in the combustion process. Although there are environmental impacts of wood burning, the rate of emissions is significantly lower than that of coal-based generation.^2/ Biomass co-firing is the practice of introducing biomass and coal together into an existing coal-fired boiler for electricity generation purposes. The biomass can either be introduced via a dedicated feed system or mixed with coal in the coal pile and fed to the boiler through the coal feed system. The substitution of biomass for coal in power plants has the effect of reducing SO₂ emissions and can also lead to lower NO_x emissions. Existing coal-fired plants can use 10-20% biomass for co-firing without major modifications.  

 ______________________  

  Sources: “Biomass for Electricity Generation” http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/analysispaper/biomass/ and “Emission Coefficients” http://www.eida.doe.gov/oiaf/1606/coefficients.html, U.S. Department of Energy websites. 

 1/ Burning wood to produce electricity emits 195 pounds of CO₂ per million Btu; coal burning ranges from 205-227. 

2/ For example, per kilowatthour generated, biomass integrated gasification combined-cycle (BIGCC) generating plants can significantly reduce particulate emissions (by a factor of 4.5) in comparison with coal-based electricity generation processes. NO_x emissions can be reduced by a factor of about 6 for dedicated BIGCC plants compared with average pulverized coal-fired plants. 

_________________________________________________________________________

 College of Natural Resources Policy Analysis Group – University of Idaho 

After the dust settled, District Ranger Mary Farnsworth recognized  that the storm  left in its path an alternative energy source: woody biomass.  Even in the absence of storm damaged land, recent fires have focused attention on the need for fuel reduction treatments.  If a cost effective method to dispose of the Bear biomass could be demonstrated, the results would have application elsewhere on the District and  in the region.  

In 2007, the Council Ranger District offered four timber salvage sales, and a fuel reduction component was added as part of the cleanup.  The contract was described as a demonstration project, or proof of concept, because of several unanswered operational and market questions.  Logging operations have attempted chip conversion in the woods before, but contractors lacked equipment to collect the slash material and then transport it  safely and efficiently over forest roads.  To be cost effective, the haul destination must be in the local area.    To address these issues, the Payette National Forest pooled local and regional talent into a demonstration project on the 2007 timber sales.  The Council Ranger District, the Woody Biomass Utilization Partnership, and the Montana Community Development Corporation hosted field demonstrations of their accomplishments on August 20th and 21st.  

As market opportunities develop in Southwest Idaho, those looking to establish a new or expanded business may be asking where they can get a supply of biomass for their raw material.  This may be less of an issue soon, as final contracting and funding are in place to do a CROP (Consolidated Resource Offering Protocol) that will give Southern Idaho and SE Oregon a broader biomass supply.

 The Woody Biomass Utilization Partnership has secured funding from five sources totaling $45,000 to pay for the contract with Mater Engineering to complete the CROP for Southern Idaho.  The information gathered by Mater will cover all of the Federal and State lands in Southern Idaho with the exception of the Targhee and Caribou National Forests in Eastern Idaho.  The information should be available in May or June that will allow those looking for supply to look at what will be available and how secure that biomass volume might be.

There is a lot of biomass in Southern Idaho to support various industries, but it has never been easily accessible. Also, it has always been difficult for a business that will need a specific raw material stream to supply its needs to show banks that a supply is available, thus making it a challenge to secure funding. Having biomass information available on a searchable database will give a quicker answer to those supply questions that come up with every new market opportunity.   All new biomass utilization businesses will create new jobs and give those in the woods more places to market their products. 

On Friday, May 9th, 3 timber sales on the Council Ranger District sold.  The timber volume on these sales is approximately 27.5 million board feet.  Is this a positive action for the residents of Adams County?  Many would have to say yes!

Pre-work conferences on these sales started on May 12th and activity began soon thereafter.  Ten local logging contractors and helicopter companies will work on these sales this summer, including Brown Brothers, Canaday, Mahon, Carlock, Barnett Brothers, Helmick, Gladheart, and J Bryson.  Columbia Helicopters and Woody Construction will run the helicopter operations.  With over 7,000 log trucks loads coming off these sales, most log trucks in the area will be at work.  Boise Building Solutions (formally Boise Cascade) and Bennett Forest Industries were the successful bidders. 

According to Forest Service Interdisciplinary Team Leader Bill Gamble, the emphasis on these sales was “intelligent salvage”.  Salvaging material while it is still economically valuable, while leaving material on the sites for environmental reasons, was the goal of the effort according to Gamble.   Approximately 23% of the available volume will be left for snags for specific species such as the white headed woodpecker or on the ground for soil productivity reasons.  District Ranger Mary Farnsworth stated, “We want as minimal an impact on these sites as possible.” 

In order to learn the concerns of the local public, Ranger Farnsworth asked the Adams County Commissioners to request Cooperating Agency Status.  This status is reserved for government entities and entitles those groups to designate representatives to participate in the analysis process.  Adams County received the status and designated Commissioner Mike Paradis and Wendy Green of Indian Valley as their representatives.  This not only allows the county to participate but is a conduit to local people wanting to know how their concerns are being addressed in the analysis process.  From initial ignition of the fire in late August of 2007 until the decision was made, the process took seven months.

The analysis that was completed used the standard National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process.  Appeals could be made after a decision is made.  Several appeals have been submitted.   However, in this case Ranger Farnsworth requested through the proper channels a Chief’s Emergency Situation Determination.  This determination was granted by the Chief of the Forest Service.  Appeals are still allowed but stays which would delay harvest are not.  This allowed the loggers to immediately go to the woods after the sales were sold.  This determination was a first for the Forest Service Intermountain Region (R-4).  In order for this type of determination to be granted by the chief, certain criteria needed to be met: first, risks to life and property or risk of substantial financial loss to the federal government; second, rapid wood deterioration resulting in loss of economic value; third, lack of availability to logging contractors to log the sales resulting in delayed harvest and loss of economic value.  The second item, loss of economic value, combined with the lack of available loggers if the sales were held up for up to 105 days during appeals, were the primary criteria used for requesting the Emergency Situation Determination.

The sales include the yarding and removal of woody biomass where it is economically feasible and can be done with a minimum of environmental impact.  Seven thousand tons of woody biomass (read slash) will be yarded and removed from the sale area.  Brush Disposal funds will be collected and service contracts awarded, possibly as early as this fall, for this work.  Removal will probably occur next summer. 

So why is the Forest Service looking at removing what has been piled and burned in the past?  Ranger Farnsworth says the forest is committed to making a supply of material available to the Council School District.  The school has to buy it but not transport it. This year the forest will move 2,000 tons of woody biomass from the Bear area, and next year approximately 10,000 tons will be removed from the Grays Creek sales and from the Meadows Slope sale on the New Meadows District.  Bob Giles, Payette Timber Staff, says the forest is anticipating removing 30,000 to 40,000 tons of material a year in the future from restoration style sales around communities and in commercial and precommercial thinnings.  In addition to the school, there are several companies in this area that could utilize the biomass material. 

The forest is committed to supplying material to produce alternative forms of energy.  By removing biomass and not burning the material on site, the risk to adjacent stands from burning is reduced, there is less smoke pollution, and the need for suppression crews is greatly reduced. 

Special considerations have been made for firewood cutters on these sale areas.  Tops and cull logs will be yarded and piled in landings that will be accessible to firewood cutters.  The Brush Disposal money that is collected for the service contracts to remove other woody biomass material will also be used to close the temporary roads after the public has harvested the firewood.  In the past, logging contractors have closed temporary roads immediately after their operations were completed.

In summary, from the fire ignition, through analysis, to decision to harvest, the process  took approximately seven months.  Work is under way and provisions were made for public participation at the local level.  Many jobs have been created in the woods, and will result in increased business in motels, camp sites, repair shops, parts stores, lumber yards, restaurants, etc.  Ranger Farnsworth stated: “The Forest Service is committed to be as innovative as we can be to promote biomass utilization and be within our budgetary and regulatory constraints.”  In Adams County this effort converted a “sow’s ear into a silk purse.”

The Woody Biomass Utilization Partnership, a group made up of representatives from Adams, Boise, Gem and Valley Counties, is working on a variety of projects in and around the four county area.  Biomass Coordinator Morris Huffman has made over 50 contacts with folks with either interests in woody biomass utilization or people who are actively involved in processing woody biomass value added products or producing energy from woody biomass.  Huffman’s job is to bring information to entrepreneurs investigating possibilities of entering this type of business. 

Huffman along with Council School Superintendent Murray Dalgleish, Dave Nacarrato of Mckinstry met with Stan Kress, the superintendent of the Garden Valley schools last month.  Kress had visited the Council School biomass burner earlier.  The school board in Garden Valley was impressed with the information provided to them and have decided to incorporate a woody biomass burner in their plans for their new school.  The architectural firm designing the new school has been instructed by the school board to include space for a woody biomass burner in the plans.

Fire mitigation involving thinning of overstocked stands in existing and planned developments is a real priority in the four partner counties.  Huffman has already met with one large developer and plans to meet with others who need to dispose of material that puts their developments in the high fire risk category.  It is to the advantage of the developer to dispose of the slash by removing it rather than creating large black burned areas that detract from the aesthetic qualities of their property.  Removing it also helps maintain the air quality of the area which is becoming more and more or an issue in Idaho.  Huffman is willing to help a developer find producers that utilize woody biomass.  Obviously sawlogs easily find a home but post and poles, chipped material and slash may be more difficult for a developer if not incorporated into an overall removal plan. 

The partnership meets once a month in Emmett and the members include commissioners from the four counties, the Idaho Department of Commerce, the West Central Highlands RC&D, wood products industry representatives, SAGE Community Resources, the US Forest Service and the Idaho Department of Lands.  A recent discussion by the board involved chipping woody material in the landfills and transfer sites in the four counties and also in Canyon and Washington Counties.  It was decided put out a Request for Proposals to private entrepreneurs for the chipping.  This woody material must be burned or buried and in some cases in counties without landfills, shipped at great expense to qualified landfill sites.  Utilizing this material would extend the life of landfills and utilize a now wasted renewable resource.

A report by the US Forest Service to the partnership indicated that progress on the fire salvage sales is on schedule.  A sale on the Payette National Forest will require the removal of a portion of the slash created during logging operations.  This material will be generated by tree length logging methods.  The cost of the removal will be covered by the value of the logs harvested.  The forest representative indicated this is being done to utilize the material but the primary reason was to create jobs in the area.  A meeting with industry representatives will occur in the next few weeks.

A new sawmill is being constructed in Emmett that will process smallwood not utilized by larger mills and also sawlogs larger than can be accommodated by facilities in the region.  This mill is expected to be in operation this summer.  A wood pellet mill is being built in Mountain Home and a cogen facility will be built in Ontario, Oregon is the next year.  All these facilities create demand for woody biomass. 

As Huffman reaches out to potential entrepreneurs he has come to recognize that one of the problems with utilizing woody biomass, primarily slash, is moving it out of the woods.  In response to this concern the Council Ranger District of the Payette National Forest has contracted with an entrepreneur who has developed a sophisticated transportation system that can haul slash or wood chips from timber sales and can travel anywhere a logging truck can travel.  This has been a problem as standard chip vans cannot navigate low standard logging roads.  An additional piece of equipment will be demonstrated with this project.  Moving this material from a cutting unit to a landing creates soil impacts.  A specialized piece of equipment will be utilized to move the slash material to a chipper.  This piece of equipment has an extremely low pounds per square inch footprint.  This project should take place in the Bear area on the Council District in June or July of this year.  It is essential that this equipment or equipment like it be developed and utilized if woody biomass utilization for value added products or energy production is to grow. 

Morris Huffman, John Sloan and Murray Dalgleish

Four Boise National Forest and one Intermountain Region representative toured the Council School biomass burner this past week.  The Forest Service employees were engineers and nurserymen.  They were Rich Christianson, Forest Engineer; Brett Barry, Assistant Forest Engineer; John Sloan Assistant Manager of the Lucky Peak Nursery; Dale Swearingen, Maintenance at Lucky Peak and Shelly Hill-Worthen from Intermountain Region Engineering.  The Forest Service is looking at installing a woody biomass burner at the Lucky Peak Nursery perhaps as early as this summer.

The Energy Systems Group of Illinois has contracted with the forest service to do an energy survey of the Lucky Peak facility.  Decisions need to be made on design and if approved a construction schedule. 

The forest service group was hosted by Superintendent Murray Dalgleish and Woody Biomass Utilization Partnership coordinator Morris Huffman and partnership representative Pete Johnston. 

The Boise National Forest was picked as a showcase for the energy savings project.  The nursery currently has 3 greenhouses that are forty feet by two hundred feet and has plans to construct a fourth similar in size.  There are currently six propane heaters in the three greenhouses that rated to produce 400,000 BTU’s of energy for a cost of $80,000 per year. 

Superintendent Dalgleish described that the biomass burner in Council heats 80,000 square feet in two schools and has a propane backup that is used during shutdowns for maintenance.  The primary operator is Ronda Getusky who spends about 3 hours a day on maintenance and two students who provide assistance in monitoring.  Maintenance is usually done at the time of day when the propane backup heat would not be needed.

The forest personnel looking at wood as a heat source, were relatively new to the intricacies of operating a biomass burner.  They were given the plusses and minuses the school has experienced both with the contractor who built the facility and the problems with operating it.  When forest personnel asked if he would do it again Dalgleish said he would but would insist on training of school personnel be in the contract and more stringent requirements for maintenance of the burner be included as well. 

When forest personnel indicated that at times they needed to maintain the temperature in their greenhouses at eighty degrees, Dalgleish suggested they may want to install a burner with a radiator system rather than a heat pump system like the school has.  The difference is the temperature of the water leaving the burner.  The school burner heats water to eighty-seven degrees which is perfect for the heat pumps in the school buildings.  It also takes less chip to operate.  The radiator system heats water to one hundred and eighty degrees and runs the water directly into radiators.

The forest folks spent about 3 hours with Superintendent Dalgleish and the Woody Biomass Utilization Partnership representatives.  They said they learned a lot of what it might take to have a successful biomass operation at the nursery.