Arizona logging contract features Montana biodiesel initiative

The Arizona Daily Sun is a Lee newspaper: her editors are coming under fire from some environmental organizations for their reluctant support of a logging contract that includes the pyrolysis of biomass to liquid fuel. The Forest Service is taking heat for the timber sale because too many old growth trees have been targeted for removal.

Here's a snip from the editorial:

But key players in the 4FRI process wound up sticking up for the Forest Service, among them NAU forestry expert Wally Covington, and Steve Gatewood and Paul Summerfelt of the Greater Flagstaff Forests Partnership. Even though the winning bidder, Pioneer Associates of Montana, might not be perfect, the difference between it and the local favorite, Arizona Forest Restoration Products, was not sufficient to hold up the process any longer, they said. The Forest Service helped its cause by finally releasing its rationale for picking the Montana company for the initial 300,000-acre contract. 

-- Pioneer would hire about 500 people,-- It could get started just seven to eight months after contracts were signed 

-- It would make a variety of products (furniture parts, molding, flooring mimicking hardwoods) that would be diversified enough to sell consistently during recessions. 

-- It would have the advantage of stable fuel costs in turning branches and fine matter into biofuel as proposed.

A recent Black Hills mycology survey revealed scores of slash mountains (though no mushrooms) as result of current and concluded logging operations. Why the FS doesn't insist on tub grinders for those piles is beyond the comprehension of this interested party.

#highparkfire has cleared nearly 55,000 acres and is still working despite the efforts of human civilization to stop her.