Loan Program Aims For Wood Processing Facilities To Help Reduce Wildfire Threats

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack has unveiled a new program to support American wood processing facilities, through a partnership with the USDA Rural Development and the USDA Forest Service to provide funding through the Timber Production Expansion Guaranteed Loan Program (TPEP). The program will support the processing and utilization of wood products from National Forest System lands to improve forest health and reduce the risk posed by wildfires, insects, and disease and the detrimental impacts they have on communities and critical infrastructure.

This program is funded through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. It also reflects the goals of the President’s Investing in America agenda to rebuild the economy from the bottom up and middle out, and to strengthen the nation’s infrastructure.

Secretary Vilsack explains, “Under the leadership of the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA Rural Development is partnering with the Forest Service to support timber industry innovations that improve forest health and reduce wildfire threats while creating good-paying jobs for people in rural, forest-dependent communities.”

Through TPEP, $220 million will be made available in loan guarantees for borrowers to establish, reopen, retrofit, expand, or improve wood processing facilities, sawmills and paper mills, that use trees harvested from federal or Tribal lands. The program is designed to manage up to 20 million acres of national forests managed by the FS and complement the FS’s 10-year Wildfire Crisis Strategy.

USDA Rural Development will begin accepting TPEP applications on December 26, 2024, with a maximum loan amount of $25 million. USDA encourages applicants to use the TPEP Dashboard to find areas identified as high or very high priority areas to address the risk of wildfires and insect infestations or disease, which have caused or have the potential to cause significant damage.

Applicants may learn more through the upcoming TPEP webinar, scheduled for January 6, 2025 at 1:00 p.m. ET. Visit https://www.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_esofN0XPSi2AIEyt8pu74g#/registration.

Applicants are encouraged to consider projects that will advance the following key priorities: Reducing climate pollution and increasing resilience to the impacts of climate change through economic support to rural communities; ensuring all rural residents have equitable access to USDA Rural Development programs and benefits from Rural Development-funded projects; and assisting rural communities recover economically through more and better market opportunities and through improved infrastructure.

TPEP will be administered through the OneRD Guarantee Loan Initiative program, visit https://www.rd.usda.gov/onerdguarantee.