Biomass-to-jet fuel and Community Forest Trust bills signed into law today

Slash and residue from timber harvests and saw mill operations could supply biomass for alternative fuel projects. Photo: DNR.

Governor Chris Gregoire this afternoon signed into law two bills requested by Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark:

House Bill 1422 authorizes DNR to collaborate on the development of a sustainable source of aviation fuel using forest biomass such as logging slash and sawmill wood residues. Working with the state Department of Commerce, Washington State University and the University of Washington, DNR will move forward with a demonstration project for the concept.

“We have an opportunity to bring our timber heritage and our aviation industry together to contribute to a more sustainable energy future,” Goldmark said following the signing. 

Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1421, creating the Community Forest Trust, gives communities a new tool to prevent the conversion of working forests into housing or other types of development. Community Forest Trust lands could help buffer public or private working forests from encroaching development without the expenses of managing them as parkland.

“Protecting working forests protects local timber jobs and economies, but it also preserves the clean water, clean air, wildlife habitat and other values these lands provide to us,” said Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark after the bill was signed.

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U.S. forests may hold more carbon than previously thought, study estimates

DNR-managed State Trust Land forest on Washingtons Olympic Peninsula. Photo: DNR.

Forests of the United States have more capacity than previously estimated to sequester carbon, especially the conifer forests of the Pacific Northwest. The Science Daily website reports (Carbon Sequestration Estimate in US Increased, Barring a Drought) that forests and other terrestrial ecosystems in the lower 48 states can sequester up to 40 percent of the nation’s fossil fuel carbon emissions, a larger amount than previously estimated — unless a drought or other major disturbance occurs.

A research group, including scientists from University of New Hampshire and Oregon State University, concluded that several areas of the Pacific Northwest assimilated carbon during much of the year because of the region’s mild climate. The temperate forests in the eastern U.S. absorbed carbon mainly because of forest regrowth following the abandonment of agricultural lands.

Crop lands were not included because carbon they absorb during growth is soon released when crops are harvested or burned.

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Legislature sends biomass aviation fuel bill to governor

Slash and residue from timber harvests could supply biomass to new alternative fuel projects. Photo: DNR.

A DNR forest biomass pilot project that would create jet fuel from wood waste got the go-ahead from the Washington State Legislature today. The bill, HB 1422, was advanced to Gov. Chris Gregoire for final action today after the House voted 96-0 to approve Senate amendments to the measure.

The bill will allow DNR to develop a demonstration program to generate aviation biofuel from wood waste and mill residue. In doing so DNR will be able to form partnerships to develop and implement the project. DNR also will set up a stakeholder group to develop a strategy for broader use of forest biomass as aviation biofuel if the technology proves workable.

As part of DNR’s Forest Biomass Initiative, aviation biofuel would be highest and best use for residual forest biomass as well as a unique opportunity to help new, efficient technologies get to the marketplace. Forest biomass is envisioned as a sustainable energy source that can play a meaningful role in Washington’s renewable energy sector. Using forest biomass, such as logging slash or forest health treatment thinnings, can also help maintain the working forests lands that provide habitat, clean water and other benefits to the public.

Read a copy of DNR’s Forest Biomass Initiative report to the 2011 Washington State Legislature

Also gaining final approval today was a bill that improves upon the Forest Riparian Easement Program. The House this afternoon approved by a 96-0 vote the Senate passed version of  HB 1509 which expands the compensation that small forest landowners may receive for agreeing to not harvest trees in a riparian (steamside) easement area, channel migration zone, or on potentially unstable slopes on their land. The bill also sets up a study group to look for long-term funding solutions for the program.

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Biomass as a renewable energy source

Forest biomass is often burned in ‘slash’ piles, producing CO2 and waste heat.  The same material could produce electricity or liquid fuels.

In this morning’s Seattle Times, an article was written about the use of forest biomass to create renewable energy. The article missed two very important components of the issue of carbon neutrality.  Those have to do with time and scale.

A decade or millions of years
The Carbon dioxide cycle from forest biomass takes place in a span of a decade.  The article ignores the cycle involved in releasing carbon today by burning fossil fuels that have been safely stored in the earth’s crust for millions of years.  

The article refers to a study commissioned by the Massachusetts’ Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences to report that using biomass for energy is “more polluting …than coal”.  This claim, widely circulated in the media when the study was first published, has been repudiated by Manomet as a misinterpretation of their findings in June of 2010.

A single tree or a global system
DNR presented the legislature with a report that articulates the diversity of scientific studies regarding carbon neutrality and the variety of landscape scales they use to approach the issue.

The study referenced in the article focuses on carbon being replaced on that exact spot and the number of years it will take for the replanted trees to grow back.   This ignores what the atmosphere can’t ignore – that millions of other trees across the broad landscape are simultaneously growing and pulling carbon out of the atmosphere. Carbon neutrality is not a feature of a single tree, but of large regions or even nations.

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DNR weekend reading: Power-hungry digital signs, oceanic garbage revisited, and more.

Underwater eelgrass beds are used as an indicator of estuary health because they respond to many natural and human-caused conditions. Photo: DNR

Here are a few recent articles about science and the environment that you may not have seen yet. Happy weekend reading from DNR:

Scenic.org: Digital signage and Philadelphia’s Green Future. Digital billboards use so many LEDs that they gobble large amounts of energy, require their own cooling systems, and are made of components that will eventually become more e-waste. The impact of digital billboards is examined in this paper.

Oregon State University: Oceanic ‘garbage patch’ not nearly as big as portrayed in media. There is a lot of plastic trash floating in the Pacific Ocean, but claims that the “Great Garbage Patch” between California and Japan is twice the size of Texas are grossly exaggerated, according to an analysis by an Oregon State University scientist.

Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research: Expansion of energy production from biomass requires careful consideration. Energy production from plants could provide up to twenty percent of the world’s energy demand in 2050, half of it from biomass plantations alone – but only at the price of a substantial expansion of land used for cultivation, to the expense of nature. This is the finding of a study carried out by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).

The Guardian (UK): World hunger best cured by small-scale agriculture: report. The key to alleviating world hunger, poverty and combating climate change may lie in fresh, small-scale approaches to agriculture, according to a report from the Worldwatch Institute.

Science Daily: Earth Is Twice as Dusty as in 19th Century, Research Shows. Maybe your housekeeping skills aren’t to blame. The amount of dust in the Earth’s atmosphere has doubled over the last century, according to a new study; and the dramatic increase is influencing climate and ecology around the world.

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EPA will continue to recognize biomass as renewable: Decision supports locally grown, clean energy

Today the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its plan to defer, for three years, greenhouse gas permitting requirements for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from biomass-fired and other biogenic sources of emissions. This action responds to Washington State, congressional leaders’ and scientists’ concerns that biomass would be treated the same as fossil fuel-based energy sources in EPA greenhouse gas regulations that took effect this month. DNR and the Governor’s Office encouraged EPA to take a different approach in a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in September 2010.

EPA’s decision insures that the carbon-sequestering benefits of trees will be duly recognized, and provides more certainty for companies seeking to create jobs and make investments in biomass technologies.

“EPA is to be commended for committing to a science-driven process that can credibly distinguish renewable forest biomass from other sources,” said Public Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark, in a news release this afternoon. “Washington State has been well served by the efforts of Governor Gregoire and our federal congressional delegation.”

Aviation biofuel could be high-value, efficient use of Washington’s forest biomass

DNR's Biomass Initiative wants to look into the practicality of turning forest biomass into aviation biofuel. Photo: Boeing Company

You may have read about the several uses of forestry biomass — wood waste — in previous postings here, but did you know that it could be turned into aviation fuel? That’s the idea behind the announcement today by Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark that Phase Two of DNR’s Forest Biomass Initiative will include a pilot project to produce aviation biofuels from forest biomass.

The pilot project aims to find higher-value uses for wood waste left after timber harvests or lumber milling. One might be biofuels for aviation. Forest biomass is a renewable energy source, but the supply is not infinite. The University of Washington is conducting a statewide study to see just how much forest biomass can be sustainably harvested  from Washington forestlands.

Some of the wood debris left after a timber harvest must stay on the ground to help regenerate the forest and provide future habitat. DNR’s Forest Biomass Initiative is looking for economically viable ways to use the rest. Given that this local, renewable energy source is limited, it will be important to put this material to the most efficient use to produce the highest value product – enter Forest Biomass Initiative Phase Two.

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News from DNR: Biomass Initiative Report and new firewood cutting permit process

A clump of retained Douglas-fir and western hemlock in a variable retention harvest unit on state trust land in Clark County. Photo: Florian Deisenhofer/DNR. CLICK ON PHOTO to see larger image.

DNR yesterday released a Biomass Initiative Report to the Legislature.

Removing biomass feedstock in ecologically sustainable ways to produce energy (liquid fuels or heat and electricity) can:

• Provide income for forest landowners while improving forest health; 
• Create rural jobs; 
• Reduce wildfires and greenhouse gas emissions; and  
• Aid in the production of renewable energy

It does not include treated wood, municipal solid waste, wood from old growth forests, or wood required to be left on site under the state forest practices act and implementing rules.  Learn more about forest biomass.

Firewood cutting permit process changes for State Trust forests in southwest Washington, January 1, 2011.

Permits will be offered online on first-come basis starting January 1 for forested state trust lands in Clark, Cowlitz, Grays Harbor (south), Lewis, Pacific, Skamania, Thurston, and Wahkiakum counties.

DNR offices and work centers closed December 24. We will reopen on Monday, December 27. Happy holidays!

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Goldmark to detail DNR’s Forest Biomass Initiative at January conference in Seattle

A study by the University of Washington in 2011 will assess the volume of forest biomass available ecologically and economically throughout Washington State. Photo: Aaron Toso/DNR

Generating renewable energy, creating green jobs and generating new revenue for state trusts that support education and other services are goals of DNR’s Forest Biomass Initiative.

Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark will explain the initiative, its relevance, and its urgency in his keynote address at the Pacific West Biomass Conference and Trade Show this January. Goldmark also will outline to attendees DNR’s rapid progress incubating a sustainable forest biomass industry. Several test pilots with private firms are underway, as is a University of Washington study to examine the sustainable supply of forest biomass, such as slash, a residue of forest management practices previously considered ‘waste.’

A DNR factsheet explains that emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gasses from combusting forest biomass for energy are considered “carbon neutral.” The emissions contribute to the already cycling stock of carbon being exchanged between the biosphere and the atmosphere as part of the earth’s carbon cycle. In other words, trees and other vegetation emit carbon one way or another and forest biomass-to-energy projects (unlike oil, coal and other fossil fuels) do not add more carbon to this natural cycle.

The new industry would not use traditional timber sources or whole trees. It also would not rely on downed logs, stumps  and other material that the state’s forest practices regulations require loggers to leave on a site after a harvest.

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DNR weekend reading: Loss of forestland affects birds; plus articles about renewable energy

This noble fir (Abies procera), native to the Cascade Range, was donated by a private citizen. It graces the rotunda of the Natural Resources Building in Olympia during December 2010. Photo: Bob Redling/DNR.

Here are recent articles about science and the environment that you may not have seen yet. Happy weekend reading from DNR:

Science Daily: Free as a Bird? Human Development Affects Bird Flight Patterns and Populations
Non-migrating resident birds tend to travel over forest “corridors” — areas protected by trees and used by wildlife to travel. University of Missouri researchers found that when contiguous forests are removed, bird populations become isolated and disconnected, which can lead to inbreeding and weaker, more disease-prone birds.

New York Times: A National Lab Develops Grid Controls to Handle Renewable Energy
The advanced monitors like those in the Energy Department’s experimental Electricity Infrastructure Operations Center in Richland could have averted or at least minimized the massive 2003 Northeast blackout or the 1996 Western power blackout.

Scientific American: Waste to Energy: A mountain of trash, or a pile of energy?
In Europe, more than 400 facilities generate electricity by burning municipal solid waste while fewer than 90 such plants operate here in the United States. Is Waste to Energy technology a viable and clean source of power or a costly polluter?

Also New York Times: Using Waste, Swedish City Cuts Its Fossil Fuel Use
Kristianstad, with a population of 80,000, essentially uses no oil, natural gas or coal to heat homes and businesses, even during the long, frigid Swedish winters — all by burning municipal solid waste.

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