Larry Swan of the US Forest Service to present at March meeting.

As part of the Alpine Biomass Committee’s program to educate agencies and the public on issues surrounding forest and watershed health we are pleased to announce that Larry Swan will be making a presentation at our March meeting.  We are also hoping to have Julie Kies, the USFS Regional Biomass Coordinator for Region 4, attending by telephone.  This meeting should be of particular interest to those that are interested in learning about what we might be able to do with all the excess biomass in our forests.

Larry Swan is the Forest Service Wood Utilization and Biomass Specialist for California (Region 5).   He is responsible for managing grants and agreements to improve utilization of wood and biomass, and providing technical assistance to increase utilization and retain a competitive processing infrastructure.   Larry has held a variety of positions in four different states during his 40-year career with the Forest Service.   For the last 25 years though, his work has been primarily focused on developing economic uses and markets for low-value logs, species, and forest management and manufacturing residues, and assessing public investment opportunities in forest product businesses.   Larry also regularly participates in short-term, international forestry assistance programs, mainly concerned with the interaction between forestry, and forest products utilization and marketing.   Larry is a Registered Professional Forester in California (License No. 2882).

His presentation will cover terminology, context including current status and trends for California industry infrastructure, characterization of potential Alpine County log and fiber supply, possible processing alternatives, and what is happening elsewhere with respect to wood utilization.

We will also be reviewing a proposed comment letter to the Forest Climate Action Team’s (FCAT) draft report on the California Forest Carbon Plan.

The March meeting is scheduled for Tuesday March 7th  at 6:00 pm at Turtle Rock Park.

The Alpine Biomass Committee is supported by a grant from the National Forest Foundation with funds coming from Region 5 of the U.S. Forest Service.  This organization is an equal opportunity provider.