Does Forest Service Letter Have Teeth? 

Restoration Forest Products, a sawmill operation in Bellemont, Ariz., is touting a letter of intent from the USDA Forest Service and signed by supervisors on the four national forests in Arizona comprising the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) landscape, which indicates the intended commitment of the USDA Forest Service to facilitate forest restoration projects and provide a long-term biomass fiber supply.

The Letter of Intent is non-binding, according to the letter, and does not obligate funding or performance by the Forest Service.

The 4FRI program dates back 15 years with the goal to restore 2.4 million acres of forests on the Apache-Sitgreaves, Coconino, Kaibab, and Tonto national forests in northern Arizona. The effort has sputtered and rebooted along the way, with the ongoing issue of how to process the biomass that would result from full blown logging operations. A few years ago, the program seemed on the verge of awarding proposals for the construction of an oriented strandboard plant and a biomass fueled electricity plant (beyond the one currently in operation), but the Forest Service said there was too much uncertainty and financial risk for the bidders and for the government. The Forest Service indicated it would move forward in a more piecemeal approach.

According to the recent letter of intent, 4FRI is now positioned to scale operations toward a treatment goal of 35,000-40,000 acres a year, and that more than 2 million acres are cleared under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process and are ready for immediate implementation. However, the letter noted that viable biomass offtake solutions currently strain the long-term viability of the 4FRI project, and that over the past year existing biomass offtake locations have stockpiled a substantial amount of material.

According to the letter, the Forest Service is committed to plan and provide a minimum of 400,000 acres of active forest management to improve forest and watershed health on 4FRI NFS lands over the next 20 years (20,000 acres a year on average). Based on historical 4FRI treatment outcomes and average biomass production calculations, 20,000 acres a year would produce a minimum of 500,000 green tons of biomass a year via both forest slash and mill residuals. The Forest Service will coordinate and complete such restoration through a variety of mechanisms including commercial timber thinning and removal, timber stand improvement, and other associated activities that generate biomass fiber.

The Forest Service will maintain a five-year program of work identifying at least 20,000 acres of mechanical treatment each fiscal year, and will provide five-to-10-year restoration strategies sufficient to support industrial planning and landscape restoration goals, updated on an annual basis.

Restoration Forest Products is the latest sawmill operation that stemmed from previously named Good Earth Power and NewLife Forest Products.