The Upper Peninsula Resource Conservation and Development Council (UP RC&D) in partnership with the Marquette County Conservation District recently received a $100,000 grant from the U. S. Forest Service to promote the sustainable use of low quality wood, often called woody biomass, for heating schools and similar size facilities. The overall purpose of the grant is to highlight examples of landscape-scale partnerships involving forest restoration and the use of woody biomass. Accordingly, the project has numerous partners throughout the Upper Peninsula from both the public and private sectors and will be demonstrating how fuelwood harvesting can be used to restore forest health.

The project, entitled Biomass Utilization and Restoration Network for the Upper Peninsula (BURN UP), has four major objectives: 1) Provide technical assistance to schools, hospitals and other institutions that would benefit by converting their heating systems to wood fuels; 2) Demonstrate sustainable methods of woody biomass harvesting in different forest types; 3) Assist the Michigan Department of Natural Resources in developing guidelines for sustainable harvesting of woody biomass; and 4) Create a web-based clearinghouse for information on woody biomass production and utilization in the Upper Peninsula.

The project will offer tours to mid-sized facilities in the UP, such as schools and nursing homes that are currently achieving substantial cost savings by heating with wood. Engineering services will then be provided to help selected facilities make the conversion to wood fired systems.

Although there are potentially great economic benefits available from the increased utilization of low quality wood for fuel, there are also ecological risks that must be avoided. Over-harvesting can lead to depletion of soil nutrients or erosion on certain soil types and to degradation of wildlife habitat in most forest types. Pursuing a balanced approach, the project will conduct an analysis of soil limitations across the UP that will enable forest managers to conduct ecologically sound woody biomass harvests.

As its name indicates and this project demonstrates, the UP RC&D works to simultaneously promote both the conservation and the development of the Upper Peninsula’s natural resources.