National Association of Conservation Districts

Forestry Notes

January 2009
Volume XVIII, Issue 2

| PDF version | Archive of Previous Issues |

1. Looking Ahead to 2009
2. NACD Renews Its National MOU with BLM
3. Leaders Take Part in Urban Forestry Discussions
4. Leading by Example: The Value of Woody Biomass
5. New Director of Cooperative Forestry Named
6. Seattle Puts Its Waste to Work
7. WFLC Publishes a Report on the Success of Wood Utilization
8. Forestry Briefs

1. Looking Ahead to 2009
Forest RPG chair Charles Holmes offers insight on the year that awaits

The other day, I realized that I’ve chaired NACD forestry committees for more than a decade. Some of the trees I planted when I first became chairman are already twenty feet tall.  Someone once said that ‘today is the best day to plant a tree,’ and that may be because of how fast time passes. 

I suggest that this coming year may be the single best year for forest conservation we’ve witnessed in several decades. The Farm Bill passed last summer was full of new and improved forestry provisions and opportunities for forest landowners. We successfully convinced Congress about the importance of including forest practices when working on conservation at a landscape scale. However persuasive we and our compatriots in the forestry partnership were with our arguments, it is now time to prove we were right and that it can be accomplished on the ground.

In an effort to increase participation and to reach more forest landowners, NACD, along with a coalition of forestry partners and federal agencies, is developing pilot state-level training modules to inform others about forestry aspects of the Farm Bill. Training sessions will be tested early this year in North Carolina, Minnesota, Montana, Indiana and Pennsylvania in an effort to train the trainer. Once testing is finalized, the modules will then be made available across the nation.

This past fall, NACD entered into a new national partnership agreement that included conservation districts, state foresters, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (see the November issue of Forestry Notes for the full story). The agreement calls for increased interaction between our organizations to improve technical and financial assistance to forest landowners. It is especially important that we work collaboratively in these economic times when no one entity has the financial resources to get conservation on the ground. In the past, there have been many state-level agreements that involve different combinations of these four partners but this is the first national partnership among all of these key organizations. This national partnership will become the new standard that we strive for at all levels of our organizations.

This coming year will also mark the end of our very successful five-year cooperative agreement with the Department of Interior and the U.S. Forest Service in advancing the use of the National Fire Plan and the increased utilization of woody biomass to reduce hazardous fuel accumulations and improve forest health. However, there is still much to be done. In addition to sponsoring on-going workshops and initiatives, conservation districts can look forward to three new tools that will be made available this spring as a result of this agreement: a Woody Biomass Utilization Desk Guide, a Community Wildfire Protection Desk Guide and Tool Kit, and a Woody Disaster Debris Desk Guide. These tools will assist conservation districts in working with their constituencies and partners.

This year we will work with new partners like Paul Ries as he moves to Washington, D.C. as the U.S. Forest Service’s new Director of Cooperative Forestry. The Forest Resources Policy Group will continue to guide our forestry efforts during 2009 as we work on the mutual recognition of forest management plans between our partner organizations, a carbon cap and trade system, improved definitions of woody biomass, finding a permanent fix to funding the suppression of wildfires and looks forward to the emergence of our NACD Forest Stewardship theme in 2010.

2. NACD Renews Its National MOU with BLM
In December, NACD renewed its long-standing memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Bureau of Land Management. NACD CEO Krysta Harden met with BLM Director Jim Caswell in Washington, D.C., to sign the document (pictured at right). The ongoing goal of the MOU is to work cooperatively to manage, develop and protect federal and private land and water resources through joint resource conservation projects.

The national MOU also provides a framework and over arching language that can be used to execute a similar agreement between a BLM state office and a state association of conservation districts. Recently, the Arizona Association of Conservation Districts signed a state level MOU with the Arizona BLM state office. From the state-level MOU executed by Arizona, NACD has developed a template for use by other states associations.

The template is available for download on NACD’s website at http://www.nacdnet.org/resources/mous/.

3. Leaders Take Part in Urban Forestry Discussions
The Partners in Community Forestry National Conference, sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation (ADF) and Home Depot, was held in Atlanta, Ga. in November. Nearly 300 people attended, representing local citizen groups, national non-government organizations, municipalities, state and federal government, universities and the private sector.

The goal of the conference was to harness the power of partnerships by engaging diverse professional and volunteers in promoting the growth of community forests and elevating the benefits of community trees.

General session topics featured Atlanta media representatives, Pacific Power, Center for Disease Control, The Weather Channel (on climate change) and the U.S. Forest Service (on carbon sequestration). All of the presenters shared their interest in partnering with the community forestry groups on mutual goals. For example, health agencies know that people will be more active if their outdoor settings are natural and attractive (a variety of information on this topic is available at the CDC Designing and Building Healthy Places Web site at
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces).

The concurrent sessions were relevant to the work of conservation districts. They covered technology tools, diversifying budgets, stormwater management, ordinances, invasives, volunteers and government, green infrastructure, regionalism and much more. Presentations will be available at the Arbor Day Foundation Web site (http://www.
arborday.org) in the near future.

A special discussion session was held on the new Tree Campus USA initiative, featured in the December issue of Forestry Notes. Ideas were shared on how to advance the effort, mostly through publications and Web sites. Conservation districts can be a valuable link to the campuses in their areas.

The Alliance for Community Trees (ACT) held its annual membership meeting just prior to the conference. ACT is a potential partner for districts as it has 160 local citizen groups working in urban and community areas nationwide so far and is an active advocate for local urban forestry efforts. Speakers at the day-long meeting covered a membership survey report, building public health partnerships, potential federal policy, UC Conference of Mayors U&CF policy, AmeriCorps, underserved communities, and volunteer programs.

4. Leading by Example: The Value of Woody Biomass
Surrounded by the Kisatchie National Forest, in central Louisiana, the Winn Ranger District is serving as a model to showcase the potential of woody biomass projects. The station has teamed with the Southern Research Station and State & Private Forestry on a sustainable research project aiming to utilize forest fuels and reduce carbon emissions while offering environmentally sound electricity.

In November, the group held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to promote its BioMax25 gasification unit which now provides energy to ranger district facilities thanks to the power of wood chips. Still in its infancy, ranger district staff hopes the project will blossom in the years to come.

Said District Ranger Greg Cohrs, “It’s a demonstration project, not yet operating 100 percent of the time … but we sure would like to get to that point.”

A few years ago, Southern Research Station staff scientist Tom Elder approached one of his peers, Les Groom, about the possibility of developing a woody biomass research project. The discussion led the two to Littletown, Colo., where Community Power Corporation had been developing a pre-commercial gasifier. Groom was instantly hooked on the research possibilities such a project could create, and believes gasification will be a major player in the formation of cellulosic ethanol and liquid transportation fuels. “What we want to do,” said Groom, “is to provide this fledgling industry with data correlating what raw materials are available in the south and their efficient use in various gasification schemes.”

In early 2007 the group began the paperwork to purchase a gasification unit from Community Power Corporation. After constructing the unit and the building it’s housed in the group was able to begin collecting data this past September.

According to Groom, because it was built in Colorado, the unit needed to be re-adjusted to adapt to southern temperature and humidity in order to work effectively. “We’re still learning how the machine runs,” he said. “In roughly a year’s time we should have a whole series of feedstock from which we’ve collected data and can start comparing.”

The group has tried to use woody material that has been collected through a variety of practices, whether it’s been removed during a fuel load reduction, or overstocked clutter being removed for the sake of providing a better wildlife habitat. Much of the material is pulled from the Kisatchie National Forest and other nearby lands. Said Cohrs, “The unit really doesn’t take too much material to operate and can be fueled by hardwood or softwood chips.”

The ranger station runs the unit two days each week. From those two six-hour cycles it generates enough energy to power the 4,000-square foot Winn Ranger District office and two smaller outbuildings. According to Groom, the unit consumes 50 pounds of dry chips every hour and produces a net output of 22 KW, roughly one-third of which is fed back to the electrical grid as surplus.

“I’ve been a scientist with the Southern Research Station for 20 years,” said Groom, “and this is the best project I’ve ever worked on. It’s something my mother understands. I look forward to coming to work every Monday and everyone in the group feels the same way. The scientists have a real love and desire (for this project) and there is a sense of pride.”

Added Cohrs, “The biofuels relying on foodstock are troublesome because they impact the cost and availability of food. What we’re doing here with non-edible biofuels addresses that issue in a positive way. I could see at some point in the future some of these small towns in the south having these types of plants to supply significant portions of their energy. At least that’s my vision.”

The work being done at the Winn Ranger District is not the only woody biomass project that the U.S. Forest Service is cultivating with its partners.

Said Ed Gee, national woody biomass utilization team leader and national partnership coordinator of forest management for the U.S. Forest Service, “We’re actually looking at a location to pilot a bioenergy facility through the woody biomass utilization group to ensure that at a landscape level we have all of our federal partners, as well as state and tribal working directly with us.”

The group will work with the Department of Energy through the Energy Savings Performance contract and plans to have something implemented by summer 2009. Said Gee, feedstock will come from a multitude of forest landowners, tribal partners and state and federal agencies.

According to Groom, the Winn Ranger Station project is now only in its first phase. In time, he said, the group will make liquid transportation fuel for diesel, cellulosic ethanol and a gasoline substitute. Community Power Corporation is currently working on a reactor module for synthetic diesel.

“This is a project that is rich in possibilities,” said Groom. “Another reason I love it is because it’s a natural link between the national forest system, state and private forestry and research – opportunities like this one do not come around very often.”

For more information on the Winn Ranger District woody biomass project, contact Les Groom, project leader for the utilization of southern forest resources at the U.S. Forest Service’s Southern Research Station, at 318/473-7267 or email him at lgroom@fs.fed.us.

5. New Director of Cooperative Forestry Named
Paul Ries has been selected as the new Director of Cooperative Forestry in Washington, D.C., filling the vacant position created with the retirement of Larry Payne, a strong partner and friend of NACD.

Ries' new assignment is effective in late February and NACD looks forward to continuing a strong partnership with the U.S. Forest Service through his office. 

6. Seattle Puts Its Waste to Work

For more than 100 years Seattle Steam Company has helped to power the city’s downtown area, first with coal and then natural gas. Beginning this summer the company plans for as much as 60 percent of the energy it provides to come from a green source of fuel.

In October the company broke ground on a new plant that will make use of both waste wood and natural gas. The wood material that will be used will be collected from construction sites and sawmills, and would have otherwise been dumped in area landfills or been used for compost.

The $25 million plant is working with local contractors to collect material that will produce 60 percent of the plant’s energy. Experts have predicted that the plant could prevent as much as 50,000 metric tons of carbon from escaping into the atmosphere each year.

The facility is located near Seattle’s famous Pike Place Market, where it will help to provide for the close to 200 customers Seattle Steam Company services in Seattle’s business district.

7. WFLC Publishes a Report on the Success of Wood Utilization
“Efforts in Heating Systems in the Western United States and Territories,” was recently published by the Western Forestry Leadership Coalition (WFLC). To gain a better understanding of the success elements of wood biomass systems in the west, the WFLC’s Forest Resource Management Committee surveyed western states and territories looking at their Fuels for Schools projects as well as other wood heating systems and the potential for future projects. The summary shows that most western states have embraced using wood fuel for heat.

The success of these projects, their significant annual cost savings, and the rising price of fossil fuels should continue to support the viability of this renewable fuel alternative into the future. As the program expands into less forested states, the motive in pursuing these wood fuels projects becomes less about managing excess biomass supply and more about utilizing renewable energy sources. The Farm Bill (PL - 110-234) provides opportunities for wood-to-energy programs within the forestry and energy titles. If those provisions are funded, there would likely be an opportunity for wood heating efforts to be expanded.

To read “Efforts in Heating Systems in the Western United States and Territories,” visit http://www.wflcweb.org/infomaterials/reports.php.

8. Forestry Briefs

Tax tips for forest landowners
The U.S. Forest Service has revised its Tax Tips for Forest Landowners for the 2008 Tax Year. This summary highlights the current federal tax provisions on handling timber sales revenues; management expenses; planting costs; how to handle cost-share payments from CRP, EQIP, WHIP and WRP; CRP rental payments; timber casualty losses; and donation of permanent conservation easements.  It can be downloaded at: http://www.fs.fed.us/spf/coop/library/taxtips08.pdf.
 

WERC seeking grant proposals for 2009
The Wood Education and Resource Center (WERC) is accepting applications for cost-share demonstration projects that assist WERC in meeting its mission of facilitating interaction and information exchange with the forest products industry that will enhance opportunities for sustained forest products production in the eastern hardwood forest region. The anticipated funding available this fiscal year is expected to be approximately $1 million. Completed
applications are due to the WERC on or before February 2, 2009.

The application form and instructions can be viewed and downloaded from the WERC Web site at http://www.na.fs.fed.us/werc. For more information, contact Ed Cesa, WERC deputy director, at 304/487-1510.

Biomass alliance launches new Web site
The USA Biomass Power Producers Alliance (USBPPA) announced the launch of its new Web site.

The Alliance represents 80 biomass-fueled power plants across sixteen states. USBPPA members are the plant owners and operators whose fuels come from the forestry, agricultural, and urban wood waste sectors. Visit the site at http://www.usabiomass.org.

Call for Urban & Community Forestry grant proposals
The U.S. Forest Service is now accepting proposals for the 2009 Urban and Community Forestry Cost Share grant program. Applications are due February 17, 2009.

To learn more, visit http://www07.grants.gov and search CFDA grant # 10.675.