A few months ago I came across a new term that sums up the importance of working forests to a community; the term is “green infrastructure.” Towns have a number of components in their community infrastructure that range from the more traditional items such as utilities, roads, education, health and financial institutions to less tangible items such as quality of life and livability of a community. Is the community self-sustaining or does it depend entirely on external inputs to achieve stability? In today’s world it’s a balance of these two extremes that provide communities with the ability to adapt and be resilient.
A town that depends on a single natural resource as its sole economic main stay, such as timber, fishing or mining, may be self-sustaining for a period of time, but has a greater risk to achieving sustainability in the long-term. The importance of a diversified economic base cannot be overstated and I’d like to describe how forest management and forest lands can play a central role in supporting vibrant communities across the state.
The recent run up in energy prices has the nation looking for other sources of energy. Biomass is playing an important role in diversifying the energy matrix of the country and our state. Through biochemical or thermochemical refining processes, wood biomass can be readily converted to several types of energy products, such as ethanol, bio-oil or syngas. As these technologies are further developed, there could be opportunities for their use in Alaska, but I believe our efforts should be focused on biomass combustion. The traditional way to convert wood to energy is to burn it. Wood can be combusted in several forms, but the most common are as solid wood rounds – think wood stove – or in wood chip or pellet form. The technology and options for how we burn wood have changed and this is where our greatest opportunity to grow the forest products industry exists.
As we consider biomass opportunities for our communities, we must keep two key components in mind, the scale of the project and the timber or biomass supply. A biomass facility can be as simple as a commercial- sized boiler that provides space heating to a school or group of public buildings, or as complex as a large bio-refinery or electrical utility that produces liquid fuels and/or electricity.
Communities around our state will determine the scale and type of operations that best fit their situation, and to help them visualize and understand the options available, the Division of Forestry teamed up with a number of partners in both the public and private sector to form the Alaska Wood Energy Task Group.
One of their early goals was to help identify, engineer and seek funding to move wood biomass projects forward and to demonstrate the feasibility of different technologies at a variety of scales and fuel types. A number of projects were completed last year and for the specifics please visit the following web link. (http://forestry.alaska.gov/pdfs/08DOF_AWEDTGBriefing.pdf)
Timber supply is frequently the Achilles heel of potential projects, and if it’s not well researched and documented in a wood supply study, problems of sustainability and profitability can develop. The study should address both supply needs for the life of the project and the cost of delivering material to the biomass facility.
One of the largest costs of this delivered wood is the transportation component. This is where the concept of green infrastructure in close proximity to a community can pay big dividends. Often wood “waste” is utilized from the existing wood industry as the first and cheapest source of biomass. Several projects in the state are utilizing sawdust, planner shavings and chips from edgings as feedstock for biomass boilers.
In Southeast Alaska the timber supply situation is a real concern. The volume sold from the Tongass National Forest has deteriorated for a host of reasons over the past decade. Despite the increase in volume sold by the state, there is not enough wood being sold to support the existing industry. This situation makes it difficult to plan for an expansion of biomass in this region from either waste wood or from new sales. A concerted effort by communities, state and federal resource managers, and conservation organizations is taking place to address this situation, and the outcome will determine whether the region’s economic health will continue to decline or be able to recover an important element of its economic base. Through careful, managed utilization of local timber resources, Southeast Alaska’s green infrastructure can again be an important factor in improving the local economy and quality of life, today and in the future.
John "Chris" Maisch is Alaska State Forester
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