Sierra Institute
  • About
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Staff and Board
    • Field Staff
    • Sierra Institute History
    • About Indian Valley
  • What We Do
    • Restoration and Field Work
      • West Shore Project
      • Adult Restoration Crews
    • Rural Community Development
      • Disadvantaged Community and Tribal Involvement Program
      • Socioeconomic Monitoring
      • Sierra Fellows
    • Wood Utilization
      • Biomass Heat
      • Community Build
      • Sierra Forest Entrepreneurs Program
      • Indian Valley Wood Utilization Campus
    • Collaborative Groups
      • Sierra to California All-Lands Enhancement (SCALE)
      • South Lassen Watersheds Group
      • Lake Almanor Watershed Group
      • Burney Hat Creek Community Forest and Watershed Group
    • Youth Stewardship
      • P-CREWPlumas Conservation, Restoration, & Education in Watersheds
        Plumas Conservation, Restoration, & Education in Watersheds
      • Natural Resource Education
  • Job Opportunities
  • Learn More
    • Publications
    • Media
    • ForestFest
    • Blog
    • Almanor Updates
  • News & Updates
  • Get Involved
  • Donate
  • About
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Staff and Board
    • Field Staff
    • Sierra Institute History
    • About Indian Valley
  • What We Do
    • Restoration and Field Work
      • West Shore Project
      • Adult Restoration Crews
    • Rural Community Development
      • Disadvantaged Community and Tribal Involvement Program
      • Socioeconomic Monitoring
      • Sierra Fellows
    • Wood Utilization
      • Biomass Heat
      • Community Build
      • Sierra Forest Entrepreneurs Program
      • Indian Valley Wood Utilization Campus
    • Collaborative Groups
      • Sierra to California All-Lands Enhancement (SCALE)
      • South Lassen Watersheds Group
      • Lake Almanor Watershed Group
      • Burney Hat Creek Community Forest and Watershed Group
    • Youth Stewardship
      • P-CREW
      • Natural Resource Education
  • Job Opportunities
  • Learn More
    • Publications
    • Media
    • ForestFest
    • Blog
    • Almanor Updates
  • News & Updates
  • Get Involved
  • Donate

Harnessing the Power of Hazardous Trees:

February 18, 2020  |  By Danielle Berry

How one rural community is utilizing fuels reduction activities and a biomass boiler to increase the pace of forest restoration and promote socioeconomic development.

What if I told you the same “hazardous fuels” contributing to California’s catastrophic wildfires may also be one of the state’s largest climate-smart renewable energy resources?

Over the past decade, nearly 150 million trees have died due to disease, drought, and pests leaving much of California’s forested landscape more comparable to a highly combustible tinderbox than a lush, resilient ecosystem service provider. Nearly 30% of the state’s 33 million acres of forested lands are in urgent need of treatment in order to mitigate yet another disastrous wildfire.

By now, many of us have heard numerous renditions of how we got here; however, lesser known is how we get out. To successfully confront these forest health and wildfire issues, experts assert that we must treat a minimum of 1 million acres of fire-prone land annually through thinning, prescribed burning, and reforestation; however, we are far from reaching this goal.

One rural community endeavors to do just that by proactively harnessing the power of hazardous fuels before they result in landscape altering wildfire. In 2015, the Sierra Institute for Community and the Environment set out to pilot a small-scale biomass facility (boiler) in Plumas County, California. The result was an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) boiler that serves as the primary heat source for the Plumas County Human Health and Services Center housed in California’s first full cross-laminated timber (CLT) building.

This operation utilizes 14 tons of woodchips, roughly equal to 1 acre of forest treatment, to generate up to 35 Kw of electricity and 400 Kw of thermal energy (heat). To date, chips have been sourced from post-fire recovery efforts following the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California, as well as from local hazardous fuel reduction projects.

Earlier this year, a collaborative effort between the Sierra Institute, Plumas Fire Safe Council, and Plumas National Forest leveraged support from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy to facilitate the creation and delivery of nearly 1,425 cubic yards of chips from the Butterfly Valley Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project to Sierra Institutes’ developing Wood Products Campus in Crescent Mills, California, in order to fuel next year’s boiler operations.  Under ordinary circumstances, these hazardous fuels would remain on the forest floor as chips or slash. These types of treatments beneficially “rearrange” fuels, but don’t reduce the overall fuel load. Alternatively, the material may be piled and open-burned in subsequent years.

However, by chipping these forest restoration byproducts for use in confined boiler systems we are able to utilize the power of these fuels to create heat and energy while also reducing the emission of harmful pollutants (VOCs, PM-10, NOx, and SOx) by as much as 99%.

The treatments have also demonstrated their value in increasing forest stand diversity and retaining snowpack, thereby improving the health of forests and watersheds that are crucial to millions of downstream beneficiaries. As an added benefit, this specific effort created numerous jobs and brought over $1 million into the local economy through its development and operation.

Building on the widespread consensus that our unhealthy forests are in need of restoration and that communities and the environment would benefit from the revitalization of the wood products industry, the Sierra Institute is committed to working with the Plumas Fire Safe Council, Forest Service, and various other partners in order to develop a network of biomass and other wood utilization opportunities throughout Plumas County and the greater Sierra Nevada region. Our forests are essential to the future of renewable energy, which is why we are working diligently to pursue innovative and sustainable ways to integrate biomass energy and other forest products into our local communities.

By proactively harnessing the power of these hazardous fuels, we can restore a healthier, fire resilient landscape that sustains natural resources and rural communities alike.

As part of her graduate stories at UC Davis, Danielle created a story map: Lessons Learned: Wildfires in California’s Wildland-Urban Interface. The work explores the complex factors contributing to recent wildfires that have occurred at an unprecedented scale See it here.

Previous StoryP-CREW reunion at Marin Headlands
Next StoryConditions for Collaboration: A New Apprentice’s First Impressions

Related Articles

  • Reinvesting in Working Forests, Business by Business
  • Forest Products for Forest Communities

Sierra Institute on Instragram

Please check the widget data

Popular Posts

  • Day-1_Walking-Tour_Gville-Museum
    Sustainability Institute 2018: Part One Wednesday, 14, Feb
  • Native Plant Propagation: A New Collaborative and a Novice Horticulturist Friday, 9, Apr
  • Youth Support Wildland Urban Interface Fuels Reduction Efforts in Butterfly Valley Tuesday, 25, May
  • Earth Day Reflections by Spencer Lachman Thursday, 22, Apr
  • How Has the Dixie Fire Affected Sierra Institute’s Work? Wednesday, 13, Oct
  • Reinvesting in Working Forests, Business by Business Thursday, 4, Nov

Categories

Tags

academic Biomass coalition Collaboration Community Community Well Being conservation Cowboy in the Forest Environment Having Fun Healthy Forests interview Jobs Learning Local Investments Mass Timber natural resources Nature Rules! New Friendships outdoor adventures Personal Health policy policy process Positive Mental Attitude public policy research resource management Rural Communities Rural Communtities Rural Economies Rural Voices Sierra Fellows Socioeconomic Monitoring teen health and wellness Tours Urban & Rural Value Added Products watershed Watershed Health Water Supply Whirling Disease wildfire wildlife Workshops Worth It

Archives

  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • November 2020
  • August 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017

Help Us Promote Vibrant Rural Communities

DONATE TODAY

P.O. Box 11, 4438 Main Street
Taylorsville, CA 95983

530-284-1022 phone
530-284-1023 fax
info@SierraInstitute.us

NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP



© 2020 Sierra Institute