In spring 2020, the US Forest Service’s Wood Innovations Grant program awarded the SWERI Wood Utilization Team, a $260,000 grant to lead a Wood Utilization Team across three states. The team will focus on increasing forest restoration efforts through the expansion of forest product business clusters in the Southwest.
With this funding, the team plans to build on the research and development infrastructure of three university-based research units that comprise the Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes, or SWERI—the New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute, the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute and the ERI at Northern Arizona University—to support the expansion of forest product business clusters through focused workshop training events, applied research studies, and forest product marketing efforts.
Across the Southwest, projects that thin and remove small-diameter trees to restore forest health and prevent catastrophic wildfire are often hindered by a lack of markets for the low-value wood and biomass needed to fund operations. For several years, the Forest Service, industry partners, ecologists, and stakeholders have worked to overcome this barrier to reinvigorate the regional forest products industry and spur forest restoration efforts.
“Funding from the Forest Service’s Wood Innovations Grant program allows us to creatively grow the forest products industry sector and associated markets, which in turn supports forest restoration activities in the Southwest,” said Dr. Han-Sup Han, director of ERI’s forest operations and wood utilization program.
To learn more about the 2020 Forest Service’s Wood Innovations Grants, click here.
And, check out this NAU News story, which details the SWERI Wood Utilization Team project, its team members and project goals.
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The traditional practice of openly burning woody biomass (a common byproduct of southwestern US forest restoration) degrades soil and compromises air quality, driving researchers to evaluate alternative air curtain burners like the FireBox and CharBoss® for their efficiency in cleanly disposing of biomass and producing soil-restoring biochar.
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