Tribes pioneer local biomass effort

Long before the first white explorers wandered through the area now called Sisters, the native tribes lived here as partners with nature. The settlers decided to conquer nature and produced some disastrous consequences. Now the Native Americans have returned with an innovative solution for one problem created by stewardship failures with the land.

Calvin Mukumoto is the Forest Resources Director of Warm Springs Forest Products Industries (WSFPI), a business that is wholly owned by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs (Tribes). Mukumoto explained that under the direction of the Tribes, WSFPI is attacking the problem resulting from the historic build up of fuels on the forest floor due to fire suppression in the Sisters area.

Mukumoto said the Tribes recognized the problem some time ago and wanted to obtain, "a sustainable business solution." He said that the Tribes look at new business ventures as a triangle: "The three legs of the triangle are the environmental issues, the economic issues and the social issues."

When all these issues can be conjoined, there is a sustainable business solution, and the Tribes will pursue the solution.

WSFPI initially is partnering with Oregon Wild to develop a restoration and fuels reduction pilot project adjacent to Black Butte Ranch and near Tollgate. The project will thin dense stands of young trees that have grown in due to historic fire suppression and logging, reduce overall fuel load in the forest and restore the natural ecological function. (See "Forest restoration protects Sisters area," The Nugget, January 3, 2007, page 5.)

The innovative portion of this pilot project is that the piles of debris, commonly called slash, that are generated in the process of fuel reduction and thinning will not be burned on the forest floor. Instead WSFPI will purchase this biomass, haul it away and use it to generate electricity that will enter the power grid.

One of the benefits according to Mukumoto is that even after factoring in the fuel used to drive the slash to the biomass generation plant, there will be 73,000 fewer tons of carbon entering the atmosphere than if the slash was burned as is customary. He adds that that calulation doesn't even take into account the particulates that will not be entering the atmosphere.

The reduction of heavy smoke from slash burning near Sisters will be an asset - and a welcome relief - to residents of the area, as well.

Federal agencies, including the U. S. Forest Service, have more acres requiring fuel reduction than they can treat using available appropriations as provided by Congress. Fuel reduction efforts are expensive, and it is unlikely that sufficient appropriated funds will be available over the long-term to carry out the necessary and sustained efforts needed to return Oregon's forest ecosystems to a healthy condition.

The Tribes believe that creation of a ready market for biomass fuel will open fresh opportunities and avoid the need for large federal or state appropriations to complete needed treatment and restoration.

Maret Pajutee, District Ecologist for the Sisters Ranger District, says of the project, "It will be a great thing when we can take something that previously had no value and something that we have a lot of and produce energy. It would be a dream come true."

The use of biomass to power kilns and sawmills is not new technology. WSFPI has used a power plant that was built in 1927. The plant was purchased and transported from Alaska in the late 1970s. The plant was a four-boiler, three-turbine, 9-megawatt generator plant; the only problem with the plant was that it was very inefficient and not environmentally friendly.

Mukumoto said, "About a year ago we completed building an 80,000-pound boiler that is much more efficient and environmentally friendly." The new boiler uses up-to-date technology and produces an insignificant amount of pollution compared to the old boiler complex.

"They are now going to build another 100,000-pound boiler and put in a 20 megawatt generator," Mukumoto said.

The new biomass energy generation plant will be located at the Warm Springs mill site. WSFPI will purchase and utilize the woody biomass debris generated as a byproduct from these forest management projects to generate up to 15.5 MW of renewable energy available for sale into Pacific Northwest power grids. That amount of electricity will be enough to provide over 15,000 homes with continuous renewable electricity.

Mukumoto anticipates that WSFPI will work with the Sisters Ranger District stewardship contracts and the Metolius Forest Management Project. The money WSFPI pays for the biomass will help to offset the costs of the Forest Service restoration projects.

WSFPI plans to be removing biomass from the Sisters area for about 20 years.