ESFPA E-News

USDA Drops $74 Million on Grants for Wood Products

Drawing from the Inflation Reduction Act and infrastructure law, on May 14, USDA announced it would make nearly $74 million available to promote wood products, including through the Wood Innovations Grant and Community Wood Grant programs. The Administration’s outlay will support 171 project proposals across the public, private and non-profit sectors. Highlights include funding for installation of “cutting edge equipment in sawmills,” mass timber projects, and “converting heating systems to sustainable biomass boilers.” 

Congratulations to Gutchess Lumber who received a Wood Innovations Grant and Baillie Lumber who received a Community Wood Grant in this round of funding!

Click the link below to read more about the FY 2024 funded proposals:

How to improve your Logging Profits

Learn about the business of logging with Benjamin F. Hoffman’s classic book, How to Improve Logging Profits, now available as a downloadable PDF or e-pub (for e-readers) for free. It was originally compiled from a series of Northern Logger articles in the '90s to assist loggers in business management, especially considering the evolving challenges in costs and market complexities.

The 2024 edition has been updated, revised, and converted to a digitized format thanks to a Farm Credit Northeast AgEnhancement Grant. Farm Credit Northeast AgEnhancement supports programs, projects, and events that are intended to strengthen agriculture, commercial fishing, and the forest products sector in the Northeast. This program is a combined effort of Farm Credit East and CoBank.

Clink the link below to read and download How to Improve Logging Profits:

Consortium of National Forest and Wood Product Groups Seek Delay of EUDR

A consortium of eight U.S. wood-related trade groups signed a letter requesting the European Commission to push back the mandatory compliance deadline of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) by 24 months.

The EUDR was implemented last June to limit the EU market’s impact on global deforestation and forest degradation, as well as to promote deforestation-free supply chains, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and protect human rights. Compliance of the EUDR is scheduled to begin on December 30 of this year. Large companies trading in the wood marketplace will have to prove that their commodities do not originate from recently deforested areas or contribute to forest degradation.

In their letter emailed to Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, the U.S. wood groups agreed that they “view healthy forests and their sustainable management as a core responsibility.… However, a regulation of this scope and scale must be implemented with great care and due diligence. An additional 24 months will provide the time necessary for both regulators and producers to understand, evaluate, and prepare for substantial, sector-wide changes required to comply with the law."

“As a global leader in modern, sustainable forest management and forest product manufacturing, the U.S. is already delivering on the intent of the EUDR. The EU Observatory on deforestation and forest degradation correctly shows that deforestation in the U.S. is negligible.”

The U.S. consortium includes American Hardwood Export Council, American Forest & Paper Association, American Wood Council, Decorative Hardwoods Association, Forest Resources Association, Hardwood Federation, National Alliance of Forest Owners, and U.S. Industrial Pellet Association. ESFPA worked with several of these groups on the consensus position.

Farm Bill Provisions Advancing

House Agriculture (Ag) Committee is advancing Bill Text. The Senate Ag Committee has yet to provide any details of the legislation but our national affiliates report that the two houses are beginning to align in hopes of completing draft Farm Bills in each house prior to the Memorial Day break.  The following highlights provisions in the House Bill.

The Rural Development Title overview reauthorizes the Rural Innovation Stronger Economy (RISE) Grant Program, which offers flexible grant funding for rural areas to address workforce challenges in rural economies. This program was modified to include the Jobs in the Woods Act provisions to address workforce challenges of forestry and logging operations by providing funding for career pathway programs. FRA has worked with members of Congress and the House Ag Committee to draft and introduce Jobs in the Woods with the goal of including the bill’s provisions in the Farm Bill over the past year.

The Forestry Title of the House Farm Bill includes several ESFPA-supported provisions that include:

• Reauthorizing the Community Wood Facilities Grant Program, a program that supports capital costs for installing community wood energy systems and building innovative wood products facilities.
• Reauthorizing the Wood Innovation Grant Program.
• Adding provisions to modernize and standardize Forest Inventory Analysis data collection and increase data accessibility, usability, and transparency.

The Energy Title reauthorizes the Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels program, a direct payment program to producers of renewable fuels, including wood pellets. Many pellet producers have received payments from this program over the years. There is also language in the bill affirming that sustainable aviation fuel is an “advanced biofuel” so that this fuel is eligible for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) many bioenergy incentive programs. Finally, the bill reauthorizes the BioPreferred Program, which is a labeling and procurement preference program for biobased products. 

ESFPA continues to work with our national affiliates on provisions in both the House and Senate Farm Bills and will be advocating for provisions beneficial to New York.