General Information

	State & Private Forestry Technology Marketing Unit
	The Technology Marketing Unit provides technical assistance for improving utilization and marketing of forest products.

National Fire Plan (TMU Projects)

Technology Assistance

• TA-1: Wood Energy System
• TA-12: Small-Scale Wood Energy
• TA-14: Shaving Mill Operation
• TA-16: Grape Stakes
• TA-20: Small Modular Biomass System
• TA 21: Wood Utilization
• TA-24: Douglas Fir Flooring From Small Diameter Trees

Market Expansion

• ME-1: Juniper Plastic Products
• ME-4: Winter Olympic Kiosks

Appropriate Technology

• AT-3: Grading Logs from Fire-Killed Trees

Other Resources

Related Websites

• How to Protect Your Home from Wildfire
• National Interagency Fire Center
• National Fire Plan
• Society of American Foresters
  (Forest Fire Information and Related Links)

Techlines & Pertinent Publications

• Curved Trees for Laminated Structural Timber NEW
• Structural Products From Underutilized Trees NEW
• Rural Economic Opportunities NEW
• Effects of Fire-Retardant Treatments on Wood Strength at Elevated Temperatures
• Durability of Fire-Retardant-Treated Wood
• Fire-Safe Use of Forest Products

TA-1: Wood Energy System

Presently, the community of Salmon, ID utilizes sawdust for a small-scale wood energy system in a school and the technology is outdated. There is difficulty acquiring the necessary feedstock at a reasonable price as local sawmills close down because of the loss of federal land for logging. Also, one of the schools that did generate its heat from sawdust had already replaced its system with a fossil fuel system (propane) due to the shortage of logging residue. Tim Maker, a consultant, presented the newest wood energy technology available from Vermont. Mechanical thinnings from the Salmon-Challis National Forest would be the primary fuel source. Consequently, the two most important areas of discussion involved the availability of wood residue and the infrastructure for transporting the supply.

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TA-12: Small-Scale Wood Energy

Many U.S. schools use wood combustion to produce space heat in the range of 1 to 10 MMBtu/h (0.30 to 3.0 MW). Types of fuel used are whole tree and mill chips, pellets, and briquettes. Glorieta Conference Center at Glorieta, New Mexico is an educational institutional facility that is interested in demonstrating possibilities for using wood fuel in place of propane which has increased in price significantly during the past two years. Glorieta is also favorably situated for demonstrating wood fuel, because it can provide tree chips from its own property adjacent to the educational site, and there is a surplus of waste wood mill chips available from industries within 25-50 miles of the site.

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TA-14: Shaving Mill Operation

Sherry and Glen Barrow of Sherry Barrow Strategies is sponsoring the Ruidoso Interface Project to create an integrated soil-to-soil operation for wood waste utilization in the geographic region encompassing the Lincoln National Forest in Southern New Mexico. Presently, the main focus of the project will produce cost effective animal bedding from Ponderosa pine small diameter or round wood generated from forest and water shed restoration and management practices.

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TA-16: Grape Stakes

Vineyard growers and small wood producers are looking for alternative wood sources for vineyards. Small diameter trees offer a unique opportunity for meeting this need. However, the species available from small diameter trees are different than traditionally used for grape stakes. The traditional grape stakes were treated with CCA wood preservative. But CCA is under attack on several fronts. Small producers, such as the Watershed Research and Training Center in Hayfork, California are interested in alternative preservatives for treating small diameter ponderosa pine. This project is examining the potential of treating ponderosa pine from with a pigmented emulsified creosote and evaluating its capability to improve the durability on grape stakes made from ponderosa pine. This opens a new market opportunity for small diameter ponderosa pine removed to reduce hazardous fuel loadings on national forests.

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TA-20: Small Modular Biomass System

Small Modular Biomass System (SMBS) is a gasification unit designed to operate on biomass fuels which was developed by Community Power Corporation, Aurora, CO. Development was aided by cost-share funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Biomass Power Program located at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Shell International Renewables. TMU will work cooperatively with DOE/NREL and CPC to demonstrate a 15 to 25 kW gasifier/generator operating on wood residue fuel at six different locations across the country.

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TA-21: Wood Utilization

Significant amounts of small diameter trees and fire-killed trees exist in the Bitterroot Valley. This area was impacted by the fires of 2000. However, to reduce the hazardous fuel build up, particularly of the small diameter and underutilized species, uses for this material need to be found. This project aims at providing technical assistance to members of the community to introduce them to utilization options and implement some projects aimed at creating or expanding business opportunities. This project is covering the salary of an 18 month appointment. FPL is covering half the salary and the Bitterroot Ranger District is covering the other half.

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TA-24: Douglas Fir Flooring From Small Diameter Trees

Many of our national forests face an increased risk of catastrophic wildfire because of an overabundance of dense, overstocked forest stands. This situation resulted from more than 50 years of effective fire exclusion. To help restore the forests to pre-settlement times, thinning will be required. Such restoration is expensive, but if economic uses can be found for this thinned small-diameter and low-value material, some costs could be offset. A conference room in a new demonstration building using Douglas fir flooring cut from small diameter trees will be evaluated for suitability. Watershed Research and Training Center (WRT) in Hayfork, CA supplied this material. This opens a new market opportunity for small diameter Douglas fir removed to reduce hazardous fuel loadings on national forests.

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ME-1: Juniper Plastic Products

Significant amounts of small diameter trees and fire-killed trees exist in the Bitterroot Valley. This area was impacted by the fires of 2000. However, to reduce the hazardous fuel build up, particularly of the small diameter and underutilized species, uses for this material need to be found. This project aims at providing technical assistance to members of the community to introduce them to utilization options and implement some projects aimed at creating or expanding business opportunities. This project is covering the salary of an 18 month appointment. FPL is covering half the salary and the Bitterroot Ranger District is covering the other half.

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ME-4: Winter Olympic Kiosks

Many of our national forests face an increased risk of catastrophic wildfire because of an overabundance of dense, overstocked forest stands. This situation resulted from more than 50 years of effective fire exclusion. To help restore the forests to pre-settlement times, thinning will be required. Such restoration is expensive, but if economic uses can be found for this thinned small-diameter and low-value material, some costs could be offset. To provide assistance with these forest restorations, the Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) in Madison WI (http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us) has been exploring the concept of using small-diameter timber to build roundwood structures and will provide further assistance in the form of connector testing and facilitate code approval of new joints. Some examples of joints are dowel-nut, powder driven mortised plate, coarse thread screws, and wood pegs.

The argument against processing small-diameter roundwood into lumber is that processing it is expensive, only about 40% of the material is used, and the juvenile core, which is considerably weaker than old-growth material, is exposed. However, if the timber is left in the round form, rather than cutting it into lumber, it will retain more of its strength, processing costs will be minimized, and the economics of forest restoration can be improved. The goal is two demonstration structures, (kiosks) which will be used at the Salt Lake City winter Olympics.

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AT-3: Grading Logs from Fire-Killed Trees

Significant amounts of small diameter trees and fire-killed trees exist in the Bitterroot Valley. This area was impacted by the fires of 2000. However, to reduce the hazardous fuel build up, particularly of the small diameter and underutilized species, uses for this material need to be found. This region has a large log home industry. There is opportunity to use smaller diameter material in logs homes than traditionally used. This project is aimed at exploring the opportunities for using 6 to 8 inch logs in log homes, particularly in the flooring system.