Incentives sought to use beetle-killed trees for construction, energy production

Stimulus plan could help Summit County forest health work

Summit Daily News by Bob Berwyn

 

Various economic initiatives under discussion in Washington, D.C., could help local residents reduce fire danger around their homes and boost funding for forest health projects.

 

“(The Forest Service) is being tapped for the economic stimulus package for shovel-ready projects,” said District Ranger Jan Cutts at a meeting of the Summit County Forest Health Task Force on Thursday morning.

 

That could include funding for biomass-energy projects, like using wood from local forests to generate electricity, Cutts explained.

 

With a national focus on creating “green” jobs, there could be incentives to hire people for work related to renewable energy, said Mark Mathis, who owns the Confluence Energy pellet plant in Kremmling.

 

It’s not clear exactly how the federal initiatives will trickle down to the state and local level, said Andy Schultheiss, representing newly elected Democratic Congressman Jared Polis at the task force meeting.

 

Schultheiss said the Department of Agriculture is in transition, with key positions unfilled. There is a chance that the assistant undersecretary for natural resources could be from Colorado, Schultheiss said, without naming names. 

 

Whoever fills that slot oversees the U.S. Forest Service. Having someone from the state in the position could be in a position to help local national forests, Schultheiss suggested.

 

Direct federal funding to help with biomass work on national forest lands, as well as other economic incentives, could help Mathis realize his plans for expanding operations in Kremmling. 

 

In partnership with other stakeholders, Mathis hopes to create an energy park, trying to use “every bit of wood and every pine cone” coming from beetle-killed areas.

 

“We need to put some economic value to it to help offset some of the cost to the Forest Service so we can treat larger areas,” Mathis said.

 

Mathis said some of the biomass from beetle-killed forests could be used to produce cellulose ethanol fuel at the Kremmling site, helping to cover the cost of transporting some of the beetle-kill wood products.

 

But that part of the plan may have to wait a while. 

 

With oil prices down to $40 per barrel, the economics of producing ethanol don’t add up. Alternately, Mathis said there’s a chance that rail service may be established in the valley, helping with the economics of moving products out of the area.

 

U.S. Forest Service timber specialist Cary Green said the agency is working on completing several wildfire-mitigation projects in the area and is in the early stages of planning several others, including one for the Lower Blue valley north of Silverthorne. 

 

Next on the list is the Upper Blue, where the forests around Breckenridge were hit hard by beetles last summer.

 

With complex land ownership patterns in the Upper Blue, Green said the Forest Service will rely heavily on partnerships with the town, county and private property owners to get the plans done. 

 

Management conflicts?

Green also explained some of the challenges associated with several other Forest Service directives, including a recent lynx conservation plan, as well as conflicting direction on roadless-area management.

 

Green said the lynx plan will make long-term forest management more difficult. 

 

As written, the plan includes strict limits on thinning emerging lodgepole stands to protect habitat for snowshoe hares, considered the primary food source for lynx. 

 

Across the entire White River National Forest, the agency is allowed only to thin 400 acres per year. In the long run, that will once again lead to forests that are more susceptible to insect infestation, Green said.

 

For lodgepole forests, that dense regeneration is the biological norm. But the Forest Service would like to manage lodgepole regrowth in forests around towns to reduce the risk of dangerous crown fires by spacing the tree canopy, Green explained.

 

The wrangling over roadless-area management also could affect forest-health plans. 

 

Right now, the agency is working in roadless areas around Wildernest to create wildfire buffers. 

 

But the agency is “in limbo” between different roadless rules, and future logging proposals in roadless areas could draw “heavy duty” comments from environmental interests, Green said. 

 

Other incentives

Task-force members also discussed finding other incentives for the use of beetle-killed blue logs. The hope is that the wood will be used for interior and exterior finishes and even structural elements in construction and remodeling.

 

“Builders are a conservative bunch. They maybe don’t like to use stuff they haven’t use before,” said Summit County Commissioner Bob French. 

 

Healthy forest-advocate Howard Hallman said local architects could play an important role by touting the use of so-called blue logs.

 

“If Bob French says: ‘You have to use 5 percent beetle-kill wood in your house,’ people would march down to the court house and start a recall,” Hallman said, referring to a perceived antipathy to a regulatory approach. “Architects have power. They can tell people that it’s a unique local product.” 

 

Biomass from local forests also could be a significant source of energy, said Phil Schwolert, representing Fort Collins-based Novo Development Co.

 

Schwolert’s firm runs several biomass-energy plants around the country, using solid municipal waste as fuel. He was attending the task-force meeting to investigate the potential for energy production with beetle-killed wood.

 

The biggest stumbling block is lack of information about how much biomass is available, he said.

 

“We might be interested in making a serious investment, but you need to quantify how much (biomass) is really available. We know a lot will never be harvested, and that’s OK,” Schwolert said. “But it needs to be communicated ... Here’s the acres that are likely to be harvested; these are the kinds of volumes that are available. If this group could bring that info together it would help encourage investment.”