Our February luncheon speaker was Dr. Marcia Patton-Mallory, U.S. Forest Service Biomass & Bio-energy Coordinator, in the Office of the Chief.  Dr. Patton-Mallory is a member of the Long’s Peak Chapter of Colorado-Wyoming SAF, residing in Fort-Collins, CO, where she previously was Director of the Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station.

Dr. Patton-Mallory explained the strategy developed by the Forest Service to increase the utilization of woody biomass, for the purpose of increasing the economic feasibility of treatments to restore the long-term health, productivity, and diversity of the Nation’s forest and grassland ecosystems, while at the same time promoting the sustainable production of renewable energy in order to increase America’s energy security by contributing to the reduction in our dependence on foreign sources of oil.

Since 2000, there has been a stronger Federal effort for productive biomass utilization. The Forest Service was identified as one of the key agencies in this effort to increase woody biomass utilization. Various strategies for woody biomass utilization are ongoing in the nation’s different regions and forest ecosystems. In an effort to provide a better vision for all levels and regions of the Forest Service, representatives from each region and research station and area met to form a team to produce the Woody Biomass Utilization Strategy for Restoring and Maintaining Ecosystem Health (national strategy). The team collaborated to obtain an idea of what was occurring both nationally and regionally with woody biomass utilization and to help synchronize these various efforts. This strategy will help guide ongoing efforts, identify gaps, and note critical partners needed to obtain regional and national goals of woody biomass utilization.

Marcia related some of the policy initiatives that set the context for the agency’s Woody Biomass Utilization (WBU) strategy, including the Research & Development Act of 2000, the Healthy Forests Initiative, the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, Energy Policy Act of 2005, and others. The Forest Service WBU Team developed the strategy, and coordinates activities with an inter-agency and inter-departmental WBU Group that includes representatives from USDA Rural Development, Department of the Interior land management agencies, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Defense, and the Environmental Protection Agency..

The four principal goals of the Forest Service WBU Strategy are to: (1) provide a reliable and predictable supply of woody biomass from federal lands; (2) foster partnerships to facilitate WBU; (3) produce science and technology to enable sustainable WBU; and (4) increase markets for woody biomass through work with partners. Activities include Coordinated Resource Offering Protocol studies and analysis of WBU opportunities for the Strategic Placement of Treatments hazardous fuel treatment priority initiative.

For more information on the Forest Service WBU Strategy, contact NCSAF member Ed Gee at (202) 205-1787 or eagee@fs.fed.us.