The Yavapai County woody biomass utilization market is wide open with potential. Completion of an analysis of Yavapai County’s wood resource brings the Upper Verde River Watershed Protection Coalition (URVRPC) and its partners one step closer to meeting their shared goal to support reinvigoration of a forest products industry in the region.

Results of the feedstock analysis, completed by TSS Consultants, were presented to the UVRWPC Executive Board during its scheduled public meeting on Wednesday, October 26. Tad Mason, company CEO, with more than three decades of experience working in the arena of forest restoration, told board members that the Yavapai County woody biomass utilization market is wide open with potential in several areas.

He recommended that multiple industry sectors for biomass utilization be pursued. Potential industry sectors that rose to the top during the TSS analysis include personal use firewood; biomass power generation; densified fuels such as fuel bricks, pellets, or torrefied fuels; and essential oils (a niche use for juniper as an aromatic extract).

Mason added that with comprehensive watershed and forest restoration efforts and value-added market development, the region could sustainably increase its biomass utilization four-fold to more than 100,000 bone dry tons a year. This equates to about 30 commercial truckloads (40 foot long trailers) per day.

According to Lora Lee Nye, Executive Board Chair and Town of Prescott Valley Council Member, information garnered through the study is invaluable and she complemented Mason on the breadth and depth of the analysis. “We are all about watershed health,” she said, “and this is directly in line with our watershed plan and priority to support forest and woodland restoration.”

From Prescott eNews: https://www.prescottenews.com/index.php/news/current-news/item/28701-wood-supply-study-opens-door-for-forest-product-industry-development