MISSOULA –
With the closure of Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. in Frenchtown and the dismal economic conditions in Montana’s forest products industry, developing a biomass energy industry is becoming increasingly important for the state’s forests and forest-dependent communities and industry, according to the latest issue of Montana Business Quarterly.
Turning locally grown and produced wood waste into a clean, renewable, sustainable source of heat and energy may provide Montanans with new opportunities, author Todd Morgan wrote in an article titled, “Woody Biomass: Can Forests Fuel Our Future?” Mill residuals, logging slash and small trees are all potential sources of woody biomass for heat and energy.
“With woody biomass, Montanans have an opportunity to capitalize on the popularity and federal support of green jobs and energy while also addressing important local issues like employment losses in the forest products industry, tree mortality from insects, wildfire threats from overly dense forests, rising costs of heating fuels and impacts of global climate change,” Morgan said.
Woody biomass users in the state consist of 10 bark or wood-pellet plants, 10 active Fuels for Schools facilities, two board facilities and the recently closed Frenchtown pulp mill. Before the pulp mill shut down, woody biomass users in Montana consumed about 2.5 million dry tons of woody biomass each year, Morgan said. Without the pulp mill, the figure will be closer to 1 million to 1.5 million dry tons.
Morgan estimated that Montana has nearly 3.6 million accessible acres of nonreserved timberland that contain 40 million dry tons of potentially available woody biomass, adding that this timberland represents the largest and most feasible source for additional woody biomass feedstock in the state. However, nearly 70 percent of the potentially available biomass is located on 1.65 million acres of national forest land.
“National forests will play a pivotal role in Montana’s biomass energy future, if for no other reason than their majority share of timberland and biomass supply in the state,” Morgan said.
Much more woody biomass material could become available through increases in forest restoration, fire hazard reduction treatments, commercial timber harvests, salvage logging and precommercial thinning, Morgan said.
“While there is no guarantee of these activities increasing in Montana’s near or distant future, increasing these activities could help to slow or reverse current trends in forest mortality, industry decline and hazardous fuel accumulation in our forests,” he said.
Other articles in the winter issue of Montana Business Quarterly include “Smurfit-Stone Mill Closure will have Lasting Impacts on Montana’s Economy,” “Montanans Health may be Compromised by Declining Number of Primary Care Physicians,” “Too Much Junk Food and TV? ‘Obesity Epidemic’ on Upward Trajectory” and “Today’s Children, Tomorrow’s Business Leaders: Early Childhood Investment Important for Current and Future Workforce.”
The Montana Business Quarterly is published by The University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research and is partially supported by the Missoula Federal Credit Union. Annual subscriptions are available for $35. For more information or to subscribe, go to http://www.bber.umt.edu or call 406-243-5113.
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