Regional Wood Utilization Team Grant

Western Nevada and Central Sierra Nevada of California Regional Wood Utilization Team

Living Forests is the recipient of a US Forest Service grant to create a bi-state wood utilization team (WUT).

The aim of the grant--part of $8.3 million in distributed funds just announced by the U.S. Forest Service--is to stimulate the removal of hazardous fuels from forests to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires and promote forest health, while at the same time spurring the economic development of rural communities.

If we are to restore the ecological function of western forests to address expanding problems of wildfire, disease, insect infestation, and degraded water supply and quality, then we need to find a market for all the small material that needs to come off the forest. It's too expensive to do this work without the help of a new kind of timber industry: one that is driven by ecology rather than large trees.

The WUT is working to:

• Identify people already working on this issue and bring them together; 
• Quantify the immediate and long-term wood supply based on ecological prescriptions, so that industry can plan far enough ahead to justify capital investment;
• Cultivate local businesses in the area that can generate useful products from wood biomass;
• Identify local businesses and entities in the area that can use large quantities of sustainable local products from wood biomass.

Read the funded proposal here.

Press:

• UCSC arts research center awarded $250,000 grant from U.S. Forest Service. July 17, 2017
• U.S. Forest Service grants expand wood energy markets. May 25, 2017
• U.S. Forest Service Awards Grants to Expand and Accelerate Wood Energy and Wood Products Markets in 19 States. May 24, 2017