National Association of Conservation Districts

National Association of Conservation Districts

NACD's mission is to serve conservation districts by providing national leadership and a unified voice for natural resource conservation.

Biomass, Forest Health Update

April 2005

Wildland Fire and Natural Resource Leadership Summit Focuses on State Level Collaboration

Over 130 national leaders in natural resource management gathered in Albuquerque, NM, for two days in February to discuss state level collaboration in restoring healthy forests and grasslands and protecting communities. Representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Forest Service), the Department of the Interior (Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs), states, and partner groups including the Western Governors' Association, the National Association of Counties, the National Association of Conservation Districts, the National Association of State Foresters, The Nature Conservancy, and the National Wild Turkey Federation, participated.

The driving force behind the meeting was an increased interest and need to elevate the degree of state level collaboration on forest and grassland health initiatives, especially in the context of Healthy Forest Initiative (HFI) and the Healthy Forest Restoration Act (HFRA) authorities. The group addressed a historical challenge: state level collaboration, in contrast with project level collaboration, has lagged behind in getting broad-based support and multiparty action. This lag in state level collaboration was most recently highlighted in the "Report to the Western Governors on the Implementation of the 10-Year Comprehensive Strategy."

"NACD and the Forest Service have been working for over twenty years to strengthen collaboration where the collective interest and conservation districts and the Forest Service overlap" said Corbin Newman, Forest Service Coordinator for the Fire Plan. "We view districts as important partners in our efforts to carry out the strategy at both state and local levels."

The meeting was a landmark event. Many agency heads, including Rebecca Watson, Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management at the Department of the Interior; Mark Rey, Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment at the U.S. Department of Agriculture; Kathleen Clarke, Director of the Bureau of Land Management; Fran Mainella, Director of the National Park Service; and Steve Williams, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, gave keynote speeches highlighting the importance of collaboration and signifying their commitment to collaboration with their participation.

The first day of the summit focused on examples of successful collaboration. Summit participants heard success stories from the Idaho State Fire Plan Working Group and the Arizona Forest Health Advisory Council.

Building on the success stories of the previous day, Summit participants broke into small groups to discuss the desired outcomes of collaboration, keys to success, and challenges. Jim Hubbard (Director, Office of Wildland Fire Coordination, US Department of the Interior) addressed the group, encouraging them to "Share what is in place and working, as well as identify how leadership can provide positive direction to the process." Based on these discussions, the following insights were gained:

An afternoon breakout session focused on applying the morning's insights into goals and short term plans for collaboration based on geographic areas. These sessions resulted in a list of next steps that will be considered by state level collaborators as they move forward with their efforts.

"I'm confident that our efforts to increase collaboration have long-range implications and an opportunity for conservation districts. They have been working at the local level since the late 30's dealing with resource issues on private lands. Districts understand what collaboration means and that experience should be invaluable in helping us move the process along," said Hubbard.

Laura McNichols and Bill Horvath participated as NACD's representatives. "Conservation districts were originally created with no programs of their own so the way they got things done was to use other agency programs to accomplish conservation objectives. Collaboration is second nature to districts. NACD's job is to foster the commitments expressed by both USDI and the Forest Service," said Horvath.

Vermont Leads The Way In Utilizing Biomass
States looking for a roadmap to illustrate how to utilize biomass need look no further than the work being done in Vermont. For two decades, Vermont has burned wood chips in its schools and government buildings, and the results have led the state to encourage more use of green energy.

Twenty-five state schools rely heavily on heat generated from wood-chip burning boiler systems, and many of the new state-funded buildings are designed to run on a renewable energy source.

According to Jon Sturgis, executive director of the Vermont Superintendent's Association, the reason for Vermont's steady growth in the Fuels for Schools program can largely be linked to the amount of money districts save by switching to wood-chip-based heating systems.

Sturgis reported that at the end of the last fiscal year, the 23 schools involved in the program at that time utilized 11,488 tons of wood chips, or the equivalent of more than 700,000 gallons of fuel oil. By Sturgis' calculations, that meant a total annual savings of $370,000 for those schools, based on each school's pricing experience, or an average cost of $31.81 per ton of wood chips and $1.006 per gallon of fuel oil.

The success has caused other Vermont schools to contact Sturgis when they are exploring different heating sources. "Usually the opportunity comes at the time of a major school construction or renovation project," said Sturgis. "I feel that my job is done if a school head considers the biomass option."

At that point, Sturgis often directs those seriously interested to Tim Maker of the Biomass Energy Resource Center (BERC). Maker, BERC's executive director, has the expertise to field the kinds of questions school districts and their voters typically have during the decision-making process. The non-profit agency also has the ability to manage the project, overseeing installation, selecting a vendor, and making sure the system works the way it should. "Tim literally wrote the book on the Fuels for Schools program," said Sturgis.

Maker has a history of working with biomass as a fuel source in Vermont. In 1986, while a volunteer on a committee exploring options for a heating source for the Calais School District, Maker played an instrumental role in converting that district to a wood-chip system. Calais became Vermont's experiment in the Fuels for Schools program, one that has helped launch a nationwide program.

Maker points out that Vermont's governmental buildings were very much a part of the process when Fuels for Schools took off. The state's two primary office complexes have been using wood since the mid 1980s, and those two each use five to 10 times as much fuel each year as the average school, said Maker. BERC has built a strong relationship with Vermont's state energy and forestry offices, as well as with Sturgis and the Department of Education. Those relationships and open lines of communication have led to a growing program.

"He and his staff and I work on a partnership basis," said Sturgis. "If the lead comes to me, I pull them in. If the lead comes to them, they pull me in."

Now Maker's seven-person team works with other states to help build Fuels for Schools programs. In New Mexico, for example, BERC was hired to examine which areas were fit to have the program.

"If the state decides it wants to put together a Fuels for Schools program, we'll be able to say, 'Here's the target area where it makes sense to do it; an area where there is available fuel and a whole bunch of schools you can cluster in one place,'" said Maker.

But those are just a few factors involved in the process, said Maker and Sturgis. One of the biggest roadblocks in building a successful biomass utilization project is transportation. According to Sturgis, no delivery in Vermont is made from more than a 100-mile radius. And, even though most of the biomass comes from in-state, some schools work with contractors from Canada and New Hampshire to keep travel costs low.

Maker said that New Mexico's first participating district, for example, had to work with a Pennsylvania-based company. The largest two suppliers in the industry are located in northern Michigan and Vermont. Western states such as Montana and Idaho have plenty of thinning programs but road access can be a hurdle in those mountain states.

"It's not an easy process to get going," said Maker. "Having the infrastructure to get the wood out and having the actual thinning projects going on that do that is a big barrier." "It's not trivial. You don't just put an ad in the paper."

Other possible stumbling blocks for the Fuels for Schools program can arise if the community is for some reason opposed to burning wood, if the site layout is not set up to allow for truck deposits, and if the site is not conducive to air quality and dispersion requirements.

Sturgis also said that upfront costs are often considered a showstopper, but he pointed out that the Vermont Department of Education school construction funding formula allows for 90 percent state aide for a life-cycle, cost-effective renewable energy system. To qualify for a fully-automated system, schools need to meet one of two requirements: 50,000 square feet, or 25,000 gallons of fuel oil burned per year.

One of the reasons the state has found success, said Maker, is that they've kept it simple for the contractors thus far. The basic requirements for the material are that it be hardwood, green, and that the fuel not be subjected to adverse weather conditions. Saw mills, which supply the majority of the material used in Vermont, chip directly into the truck and cover the vehicle on its way to delivery.

"There's not a whole lot more to the contract than that," said Maker, "and that's quite intentional. The saw mills are not accustomed to acting like oil suppliers. They aren't in the customer service business, for the most part, and so if you create a lot of hurdles for them and complicated paperwork and bid requirements, they could very well just walk away and say, 'not interested.' Our approach has worked quite well over the last 10-15 years."

There aren't any specific goals as far as growing the number of participating schools each year, Sturgis said, only to continue to promote biomass as an alternative heating source. Getting the word out is in itself a success, and something Vermont has been receptive to, he said.

"The goal is simply to encourage the school to implement a cost-effective, energy-efficiency measure," said Sturgis. "When the opportunity arises, we want to inform schools about our option so that they can make an informed decision."

For more information, contact Tim Maker at tmaker@biomasscenter.org, or Jon Sturgis at vsasemp@yahoo.com.

Northeast Biomass Efforts Draw Interest From United Kingdom
A team of Great Britain foresters and researchers visited with New England conservationists in January to study how biomass can be utilized as a fuel source. The eight-person "UK woodfuel mission team" met with conservationists from northeastern states currently employing biomass utilization projects to discuss a variety of aspects of the process, including timber harvesting, delimbing, shredding, drying, handling, transport, and storage of hardwood fuel.

"In Great Britain they're trying to build up their capacity of biomass energy projects," said Paul Frederick, wood utilization forester for the Department of Parks in Waterbury, Vermont. "They don't have a mature fuel supply chain and that was starting to lead to problems that they were having with getting suitable fuelwood at a price that was attractive to the landowner from the standpoint of being high enough, and to the consumers from the standpoint of being low enough."

According to Frederick, besides the advances states like Vermont have made in biomass utilization, climate was another major reason why the UK team chose to visit that particular region of the United States.

" Mid-Atlantic states mimic what their winters are like," said Frederick. "Not really frozen conditions, but dormant and somewhat wet."

The researchers spent four days touring Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia before flying into Burlington, where Frederick said the group spent two days exploring a few choice facilities and analyzing Vermont's transportation methods. The group also got an opportunity to look at chipping equipment and visit with an equipment manufacturer.

After leaving Vermont, the group concluded its trip in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

"They seemed to be real happy with the tour," said Frederick. "Most of the units we have in the northeast are utilizing green wood chips and that was something they didn't have any real experience with."

In May, Frederick will travel abroad with a small group of American conservationists specializing in biomass projects for the UK team's presentation on their findings.

CSWCD is helping to restore Albuquerque's Bosque region
With the help of $500,000 for natural resource restoration, Ciudad Soil and Water Conservation District is removing non-native vegetation in the Bosque, a 22-mile stretch of terrain that dissects Albuquerque, New Mexico north to south.

The money, which was acquired from the New Mexico Office of Natural Resources Trustee through the Mid-Region Council of Governments, will assist CSWCD in clearing vegetation such as Russian olive, Siberian elm, and salt cedar, which consume large quantities of water and can act as ladder fuels for wildfires.

Since two fires ripped through the area in July 2003, CSWCD has been a leader in the efforts to clear the unwanted vegetation. Other funding has allowed CSWCD to restore the region, which houses some of the country's tallest cottonwoods and acts as a recreational park for many of Albuquerque's citizens. In the summer of 2004 alone, CSWCD, along with Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and the city of Albuquerque's Open Space Division, treated close to 800 acres of the Bosque.

Funding for this project became available to CSWCD when the New Mexico Office of Natural Resources Trustee was looking to fund a ground water conservation project in the Middle Rio Grande region. That office is responsible for restoring natural resources that have been injured by releases of hazardous substances or oil. In this particular case, the agency obtained settlement money from a company that had contaminated ground water on the west side of the Bosque.

"Our focus was to do a ground-water restoration project, and we chose the idea of conserving ground water by removing the water-hungry plants," said Rebecca Neri Zagal, executive director of the Office of Natural Resources Trustee.

Neri Zagal said that the agency often looks for sister agencies that can help coordinate efforts on the ground. The Mid-Region Council of Governments, which has representatives from the local, county and state jurisdictions throughout the Bosque, was asked to serve as the coordinating agency. "In this particular case, they had the expertise. They knew the players in the Middle Rio Grande area, and they were able identify locations that needed invasive species removal," said Neri Zagal.

The Ciudad District, which already had agreements with several of the governmental agencies represented on the council, was a natural fit to do the work on the ground, said Lawrence Rael, executive director of the Mid-Region Council of Governments. "It was a win for them and a win for us," said Rael, "because it meant the project would be done quickly, and we could coordinate the elected officials on our end."

Once the non-natives are removed, CSWCD's work will enter another phase, said Susan Rich, the district's natural resources specialist. CSWCD will also be responsible for removing the trees and replanting some native vegetation to help restore the Bosque to its original look.

Volunteers from the Rio Grande Nature Center will help distribute the biomass taken out of the region so that it can be used for landscaping alongside trails and roads. Larger-diameter wood will be chipped and made available to area landowners for garden mulch and other personal use. "The first and foremost objective is to mitigate damage to shallow ground water," said Rich. "We had to find ways to do those other things not paid for under this funding."

In-kind and match funds from organizations such as the US Army Corps of Engineers, National Hispanic Cultural Center, volunteers from the Rio Grande Nature Center, Friends of Rio Rancho Open Space, and the city of Rio Rancho will help CSWCD apply other restoration efforts.

"The next step for us in this riparian restoration is to monitor for invasive resprouts, encouraging the regrowth of natives and planting natives that take up less water and provide better wildlife habitat," said Rich.

Shrub land and interspersed grasslands will go back into the Bosque to provide habitat for neotropical migratory birds. "Our goal is to preserve it to look more like it did historically before the invasion of salt cedar and Russian olive," said Rich.

For more information, contact Susan Rich, (505) 761-5446, susan.rich@nm.usda.gov.

Forest Service Centennial Focuses on “The Greatest Good”
The USDA Forest Service will celebrate its 100th anniversary on July 1, 2005. On this date 100 years ago, the Forest Service was created as an agency with a unique mission; to sustain healthy, diverse, and productive forests and grasslands for present and future generations. The creation of the Forest Service initiated a century of change in managing public forests and grasslands, with introduction of a new conservation ethic and professional workforce to carry it forth. As the agency approaches its centennial, it asks that you join their agency in reflecting on the organization's proud history and traditions and exploring ways to move into a new century of "caring for the land and serving people."

The commemoration will be a combination of nationally promoted "signature events" and locally sponsored opportunities. All planned activities are intended to recognize Forest Service past accomplishments and validate the importance of the agency's current relationship with partners and collaborators. The New Century of Service has coordinated centennial events to encourage a dialogue about the challenges presented to the Forest Service in the next century. These challenges include: rapid natural and social changes, changing public desires and new technologies.

In conjunction with this celebration will be the viewing of the Forest Service centennial film, "The Greatest Good:" and an upcoming companion book, "The Forest Service and the Greatest Good: A Centennial History."

For those who would like to have their own copy of the film, it will be available beginning May 2005. There will be a 3-DVD set. One DVD will be the full version of the film. The other two will include additional featurettes on Forest Service culture, extended interviews, the Story of Smokey Bear, Forest Service on stage and film and other historic footage as well as a 20 minute highlight of the film that will be perfect for classroom use. The DVD set will be distributed by the Forest History Society.

To purchase the DVD's and/or book contact The Forest History Soc., 919/682-9319 or www.foresthistory.org. Order forms are available on-line at the Forest History website.