{"id":56487,"date":"2019-08-09T10:24:33","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T17:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=56487"},"modified":"2019-08-09T10:27:51","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T17:27:51","slug":"eri-biomass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/eri-biomass\/","title":{"rendered":"NAU pilot project tests exporting wood products via railway to speed forest restoration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aug. 9, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A pilot project at Camp Navajo has the potential to\nunlock a critical bottleneck in forest restoration and wildfire prevention\nefforts across northern Arizona by creating markets for restoration byproducts\nlike wood chips from small-diameter trees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pilot project, led by Northern Arizona University,\nwill test the logistics and efficacy of chipping and shipping wood products via\nrailway transportation with the goal of expanding forest product markets\ndomestically and internationally and accelerating forest restoration efforts.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis collaboration is an opportunity to address\nforest health issues facing our region and create renewable sources of energy,\u201d\nsaid NAU President Rita Cheng. \u201cIt is another example of the innovative ways\nour researchers are working together to solve critical issues facing our\nregion, state and the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first phase of the project will take place at the Department\nof Emergency and Military Affairs (DEMA) Camp Navajo Training Center over the\ncourse of eight days. It includes chipping 1,300 tons of small-diameter logs\nextracted from forest restoration projects like the Four Forest Restoration\nInitiative, which has struggled to find markets for the low-value wood removed\nfrom its thinning efforts. The wood chips will then be loaded onto 60 shipping\ncontainers bound for South Korea via railway and cargo ships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A team of researchers from the Ecological Restoration\nInstitute at NAU has worked closely over the past year with the Arizona\nDepartment of Forestry and Fire Management (DFFM), DEMA, Hyundai Merchant\nMarine, BNSF Railway and the U.S. Forest Service to launch this pilot project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis pilot project allows us to remove a portion of\nthe biomass bottleneck from our forests, and in turn, provide a fuel source to\na foreign country,\u201d DFFM director David Tenney said. \u201cThe biomass bottleneck\ncontinues to be a roadblock and prevents us from moving forward with other\ncrucial project work. The chip-and-ship pilot program grants a unique\nopportunity to partner with South Korea, which deems biomass a vital fuel\nsource. If proven successful, we can potentially expand to other markets across\nthe country and abroad.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
President Cheng speaks at the event Aug. 9 at Camp Navajo.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

South Korea places a higher value on wood chips and other\nforest products due to their demand in its renewable energy market. The country\nuses these products to generate electricity and offset the use of coal. As this\nmarket has steadily increased in size over the last three years, it represents\na significant opportunity to expand wood product exports for Arizona\u2019s\nforest-based enterprises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To celebrate the start of the chipping phase, project partners held a special event at Camp Navajo on Aug. 9, giving attendees, including President Cheng, the opportunity to view a project demonstration and ask questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aug. 9, 2019 A pilot project at Camp Navajo has the potential to unlock a critical bottleneck in forest restoration and wildfire prevention efforts across northern Arizona by creating markets for restoration byproducts like wood chips from small-diameter trees. The pilot project, led by Northern Arizona University, will test the logistics and efficacy of chipping…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":56511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}