Cover: Unnaturally dense forests like this one in central
Oregon’s Deschutes National Forest are prone to insect
infestations, disease and severe wildfire. This forest would
have been a prime candidate for thinning for both forest
health and as a source for woody biomass. Instead, it was
consumed in a wildfire.
WARNING: The size of this .pdf file may cause problems for some computers.
Of course wildfires are quicker and less messy than the arduous task of clearing debris, thinning forests and generating power. Have to give certain naturalists credit for recognizing that. [A bit of evil snark]
Due to a century of fire suppression without adequate thinning, millions of acres of Oregon’s federally owned forestland in eastern and southern Oregon are dangerously overstocked, and at high risk of large, uncharacteristically intense wildfire. In addition, because the source of such fuels tends to be in more rural parts of the state, the jobs and commerce created through thinning and slash reduction would help revitalize the economies of Oregon’s rural communities.
The below is of nostalgic interest to me because I came from this ecological disaster caused by overlogging and overgrazing and overwatering and all manner of bad practices that I have written on the wind about elsewhere.
Among other things, when the vast expanse of Goose Lake was drying up, endangered fish had trouble breathing since they refused to evolve lungs.
A project by DG Energy Solutions in Lakeview is among the first new biomass facilities in Oregon since 1992. Using woody biomass as fuel, the $20 million facility can provide nearly 100,000 megawatt hours of electricity to the regional Oregon power grid annually while at the same time providing process steam to a nearby sawmill owned by the Collins Company. "Using biomass from overstocked forests, this innovative project will produce electricity while helping restore forest health, reduce fire risks and create jobs," Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski said in announcing the new plant.
Part of the solution is more logging?
Well yeah, kind of. Tree farms are to provide more fuel for the power plant. To the west in Chiloquin on the remains of the Klamath Indian Reservation is producing furniture from invasive juniper.
"Invasive juniper?"
Odd you ask. You did, didn't you? :-)
Juniper has come down off the crags and cliffs and invaded the valleys to do considerable harm because of overgrazing of livestock and, I would guess, slaughter of predators.
Hard for me to imagine juniper furniture. One Christmas Dad cut down a juniper for a Christmas tree. Shouldn't have. A day or two later the whole place reeked like a gin mill. (Gin is flavored with juniper berries.) Took months for the odor to go away. Worse than when a family of skunks moved in under the house. Because of all the sap in juniper logs, they make superb fence posts in swampy areas.
If the furniture doesn't work out, you have wonderful fence posts. :-)
The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon is
planning to construct a demonstration biomass cogeneration facility at its mill
site in Warm Springs. At the same time, it will undertake a long-term resource
management program that involves forest fuels reduction and restoration projects
on reservation and non-reservation land that will provide fuel for the plant.
Larry Potts, former manager of theTribe’sWarm Springs Forest Products Industries
mill, said the 15 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy generated will provide
more than 15,000 homes with continuous renewable electricity.
Ah yes, Warm Springs. When the deep thinkers at MIT diverted attention from development of conventional geothermal resources for futuristic dreams, a graduate student at the same school wrote a paper on the ready availability of low temperature geothermal power on the Warm Springs Reservation. No one much bothered with it.
Lakeview has superb geothermal resources too but few have cared much about that either.
We be mostly into solar, wind and deep geothermal around here.
Best, Terry