FLAGSTAFF—The
Greater Flagstaff Forests Partnership (GFFP) today
released the executive summary of the GFFP Small Diameter
Wood Utilization Report, a year and a half study identifying
and assessing options for productive use of the small
diameter trees currently choking many southwestern
ponderosa pine forests.
Finding
ways to create value through the use of these trees
is perhaps the most important obstacle to expanding
the acreage of forest ecosystems restored every year
and helping reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire.
Right now, there is simply nowhere to take for processing
the small diameter trees that are removed from forests
as a result of restoration work. This means the federal
government has to pay significant funds for every
acre treated on National Forest System lands. Solving
this dilemma was the purpose of the study.
“Technology
and markets are not the obstacles,” said Brian
Cottam, GFFP coordinator. “The study clearly
shows that technology to make useful products from
these trees exists elsewhere, and the markets for
the resulting products exist as well. We just don’t
currently have any of this infrastructure here in
the Southwest, particularly in northern Arizona.”
The
study looked at a number of technologies for efficiently
processing small diameter wood and the markets associated
with the products from these technologies. The central
component of a new restoration-based industry is a
small diameter sawmill capable of processing logs
from 12 inches in diameter to 5 inches in diameter
and producing boards. As detailed in the report, these
boards can then be used to make laminated beams, they
can be hardened to produce flooring, or they can simply
be used in light construction. The waste products
from this process were tested in a compression molding
process establishing high potential for molded products
such as cabinet doors. [Top]
“Investors
are understandably skittish,” said Catherine
Mater, of Mater Engineering, Inc., lead author of
the study. “We have clearly identified a new
market niche in the Southwest and it is entirely driven
by federal action. Investors need to see that these
restoration efforts and the harvest of these small
trees is going to be ongoing, orderly, and result
in a stable supply. Without such signals, the investment
interest just won’t be there.”
At
the same time, the GFFP is also completing a study
on the feasibility of a small-scale biomass electrical
generating station that could burn all the residual
material as well as limbs and branches currently open
burned on the forest floor. This would take thousands
of pounds of particulates out of the air and be the
final element of an integrated industrial facility
completely based on restoration wood.
“This
is real sustainable development, a concept so often
talked about but so rarely seen,” said Brad
Ack of the Grand Canyon Trust, and a member of the
Partnership’s board of directors “From
an environmental perspective, we desperately need
to restore southwestern forests. At the same time,
the potential to create a new economic sector based
entirely on restoration activities is high. This is
doing good and doing well at the same time.”
The
Greater Flagstaff Forests Partnership is an alliance
of 22 academic, environmental, business and governmental
organizations dedicated to researching and demonstrating
approaches to forest ecosystem restoration in the
ponderosa pine forests surrounding Flagstaff, Arizona.
Visit www.gffp.org for more information, including
an executive summary of the full report. [Top]
—end—
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