The Biden-Harris administration announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will invest more than $43 million in expanding and promoting the various uses of wood.
The investment is being made "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," the USDA stated in a June 9 press release.
“By building more sustainably, we are able to address the ongoing wildfire crisis and lower risks to our communities," Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said in the release, "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.”
The funding, made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, will support 123 projects nationwide through Community Wood Grants and Wood Innovations Grants (CWWI). CWWI grants are "longstanding Forest Service grant programs that promote innovation in wood products and renewable wood energy economies," according to the release.
The CWWI program has provided more than $93 million to 381 recipients since 2015 to promote wood products and wood-energy products, the release reports. Proposals receiving CWWI funds will retrofit and expand manufacturing facilities and energy systems, and create markets for renewable wood energy and "innovative uses of mass timber," the release states. CWWI projects "help to restore healthy forests and reduce wildfire risk, protecting communities, infrastructure and resources while curbing climate change," according to the release.
Grant recipients include for-profit organizations, state and local governments, tribes, school districts, community-based non-profit organizations, institutions of higher education and special purpose districts, the release states.
Funded proposals include a $1.2 million grant to Hat Creek Bioenergy in Burney, Calif., to establish a 3-megawatt thermally led wood energy facility; and $300,000 to the Tahoe Forest Products in Carson City, Nev., which operates a sawmill along the Washoe Development Corp., an affiliate of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada & California, to reduce wildfire fuel on public and private land by milling logs.
“With crucial funding through the Investing in America agenda," Vilsack said in the release, "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."
