Pacific Southwest

Title: Small-diameter timber alchemy: can utilization pay the way toward fire-resistant forests

Author: Fried, Jeremy S.; Barbour, R. Jamie; Fight, Roger D.; Christensen, Glenn; Pinjuv, Guy

Date: 2008

Source: In: Narog, Marcia G., tech. coord. 2008. Proceedings of the 2002 Fire Conference: Managing fire and fuels in the remaining wildlands and open spaces of the Southwestern United States. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-189. Albany, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station. p. 29-38

Station ID: GTR-PSW-189

Description: There is growing interest in using biomass removed from hazardous fuels reduction treatments in wood-fired electrical generation facilities. An application of FIA BioSum to southwest Oregon’s Klamath ecoregion assessed the financial feasibility of fuel treatment and biomass generation under a range of product prices and fire hazard-motivated silvicultural prescriptions. This simulation framework consisted of linked models developed on a foundation of Forest Inventory and Analysis data. Small diameter woody biomass and merchantable volume and pre and post-treatment fire hazard were characterized from a systematic sample and combined with transportation infrastructure information to estimate potential biomass delivered under different objectives, constraints, and assumptions about costs and benefits. The FIA BioSum model allowed users to evaluate the financial feasibility of locating biomass plants in specific places or, alternatively, to identify the lowest cost processing plant locations within a landscape. Only a small fraction of the total forested landscape in the southwest Oregon study area could be treated via operations that generate positive net revenue, though there was potential to expand treated area via substantial subsidy of logging and/or hauling costs.

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Citation

Fried, Jeremy S.; Barbour, R. Jamie; Fight, Roger D.; Christensen, Glenn; Pinjuv, Guy  2008.  Small-diameter timber alchemy: can utilization pay the way toward fire-resistant forests.   In: Narog, Marcia G., tech. coord. 2008. Proceedings of the 2002 Fire Conference: Managing fire and fuels in the remaining wildlands and open spaces of the Southwestern United States. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-189. Albany, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station. p. 29-38.