USDA Announces Investment to Advance Innovation in Wood Products and Wood Energy Economies
Contact Information: Crystal Young 405-714-0727 crystal.young2@usda.gov
Ogden, UTAH, June 22, 2023 - The USDA is investing more than $43 million to expand innovative uses of wood, including as a construction material in commercial buildings, as an energy source, and in manufacturing and processing input for wood products used in framing homes, making paper products, and more.
Healthy, resilient forests depend on a healthy forest products economy. The Forest Service is investing in projects that source wood from activities that reduce risks to communities like fuels treatments and mechanical thinning.
Made possible in part by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, these funds are being invested in 123 projects nationwide through Community Wood Grants and Wood Innovations Grants - longstanding Forest Service grant programs that promote innovation in wood products and renewable wood energy economies. Since 2015, the Wood Innovations and Community Wood Grant programs provided more than $93 million to 381 recipients to support wood products and wood energy projects.
“With crucial funding through the Investing in America agenda, the Biden-Harris Administration is committed to supporting the wood products and wood energy economies that are the lifeblood of so many people, especially for tribal and disadvantaged rural communities,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “By building more sustainably, we are able to address the ongoing wildfire crisis and lower risks to our communities, while also creating new markets for the excess and hazardous wood we need to remove from our fire-prone western landscapes and creating jobs and wealth in rural communities along the way.”
Funded proposals under these USDA grant programs expand and retrofit wood energy systems and wood products manufacturing facilities and develop markets for innovative uses of mass timber and renewable wood energy. Projects also help restore healthy forests, reduce wildfire risk, and protect communities, infrastructure, and resources while curbing climate change. Grant recipients include for-profit entities, state and local governments, tribes, school districts, community-based non-profit organizations, institutions of higher education, and special purpose districts.
Funded proposals under the Wood Innovations grant program in Idaho includes $150,000 to Valley County in Cascade for their woody biomass pilot program. A grant of $300,000 was awarded to Burbidge Custom Timbers to optimize their timber frame manufacturing.
Funded proposals under the Wood Innovations grant program in Nevada include more than $300,000 for Tahoe Forest Products, who will design, engineer, refurbish and install sawmill equipment. Tahoe Forest Products supports work to salvage and clean up areas impacted by devastating wildfires by offering a convenient location to deliver salvaged timber, while supporting local employment opportunities, including for tribal members. A grant allocating $1 million was awarded to the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California to purchase equipment and hire support staff to expand their firewood delivery program.
Funded proposals under the Wood Innovations grant program in Utah includes $175,000 to the University of Utah Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering to further product testing and certification toward the adoption of timber-steel brace frames in building codes and provisions. A grant of $596,825 was awarded to Paul M. Young Construction to purchase and install a sawmill. A grant of $300,000 was awarded to Last Chance Lumber Sawmill in Circleville to expand their mill capacity to manufacture pallets and pallet stock. This expansion will generate additional jobs for an economically distressed county and will focus on using small, crooked, and defective logs that aren’t useful for traditional sawmilling.
Funded proposals under the Wood Innovations grant program in Wyoming includes $25,443 awarded to Western Wyoming Timber Services toward the purchase of a firewood processor. Two grants totaling $754,469 were awarded to Blacks Fork Timber to purchase a high production firewood processor and to buy and install post and pole milling equipment.
This announcement is part of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda to grow the American economy from the bottom up and the middle out by rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure. The goal is to drive more than $470 billion in private sector manufacturing investments, create good-paying jobs, and build a clean energy economy to tackle the climate crisis and make our communities more resilient.
The investments announced June 9 directly support the Forest Service 10-year strategy to address the wildfire crisis in places where it poses the most immediate threats to communities. For more information on the projects funded under the Wood Innovations and Community Wood grant programs, visit https://www.fs.usda.gov/science-technology/energy-forest-products/wood-innovation/grants.