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USDA announces $145M from Investing in America agenda to help landowners access climate markets

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced March 15 that the USDA Forest Service is investing nearly $145 million from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act—the largest climate investment in history—to connect forest landowners with emerging climate markets as part of the Investing in America agenda.

USDA’s Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment, Dr. Homer Wilkes, made the announcement at the Rural Life Conference at the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff (UAPB), which is receiving nearly $3.2 million thanks to funding from today’s announcement.

“The Biden-Harris Administration understands that private landowners are key in the fight for climate resilience and forest health,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “These investments announced today will expand access to markets that were previously out-of-reach, allowing underserved and small-acreage forest landowners to address climate change, while also supporting rural economies and maintaining land ownership for future generations.”

Forests are powerful tools in the fight against climate change, and emerging private-sector climate markets create economic incentives to keep forests healthy and productive through reforestation, improved forest management and other sustainable practices. These markets can allow outside investment to reach private landowners for long-term land management. Despite these opportunities, factors including high acreage requirements and prohibitive start-up costs have caused many small-acreage and underserved private forest owners to be left behind.

$116 million from the funds being announced is for 20 Forest Landowner Support projects to provide equitable access to these emerging markets. Many of the awardees represent or will support underserved landowners located in or providing benefits to disadvantaged communities.

In Arkansas, the Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation is being awarded nearly $1.5 million to partner with UAPB to provide landowners in Arkansas with education and technical assistance to address heirs’ property issues and forestry-focused technical assistance. The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities will also receive more than $1.7 million to help UAPB expand this assistance to landowners into new counties while supporting better tracking of efforts to assist families with retaining land and accessing climate markets.

This action also advances President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which sets the goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal climate, clean energy, and other investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution, including tribes, rural areas, and urban communities. These investments also support the President’s America the Beautiful initiative which is supporting voluntary, locally led conservation efforts across the country.

An additional $29 million is available to states and territories to help them develop technical assistance programs of their own that connect underserved landowners to incentives, programs and markets.

Additional proposals for projects up to $2 million are still being accepted. More information is available at Grants.gov.

The Forest Service also recently published a notice of funding opportunity for at least $20 million for Tribes and Alaska Native corporations and villages to better access climate markets. More information on that opportunity is also available at Grants.gov.

 

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The post USDA announces $145M from Investing in America agenda to help landowners access climate markets appeared first on International Forest Industries.

Latvia’s Stiga Rm Plans To Expand Birch Plywood Production At Its Kuldīga Mill

International Forest Industries - vor 1 Stunde 20 Minuten
Stiga RM, one of Latvia’s leading timber companies, will significantly expand its birch plywood mill this year, adding production space of 2,900 square metres, and will further modernise it with new, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly equipment. Total investment in productivity and product quality promotion projects will exceed EUR 10.5 million this year.

The office building on the territory of the production plant will be dismantled this spring and replaced with a heat treatment pool with equipment. At the same time, work is underway to rebuild and expand the production site, build another production building, create a repair base for production machinery, and establish new office space to provide a more comfortable and pleasant working environment for employees. The development projects will significantly increase production capacity and promote energy efficiency while continuing to introduce sustainable operating principles into the production process.

“The rebuilding of the production building and the expansion of the production area are planned in two phases, this is an ambitious project that has been underway since last year. The modernisation activities started last year and the installation of new equipment using solutions from the world’s leading equipment manufacturers will continue throughout this year and will make the production process even more powerful, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly,” says Viesturs Krēvics, Director of Stiga RM Plywood Mill.

The construction of the boiler house is now nearing completion, with the installation of a new 12 MW Polytechnik boiler for steam production, which is necessary for the technological process and allows the use of lower-quality wood chips and bark from production residues. Polytechnik is an Austrian company; a leader in sustainable and CO2 neutral energy solutions.

Alongside the modernisation of the boiler house, the installation of a wood chipper and conveyors for processing wood residues, as well as a filling line, continues. A conveyor system for internal logistics is being developed and a Raute dryer sorting line equipped with Mecano cameras with computer vision functionality is being installed, optimising quality assessment and sorting processes. Upgrades are also expected for several other pieces of equipment and production lines before the end of the year.

The total cost of the Stiga RM plywood production plant development project will exceed EUR 22.4 million over two years. It started at the beginning of last year and will run until the end of this year, significantly increasing production volumes and export amounts.

The development of the factory will also create new jobs for highly skilled engineering professionals. The factory currently offers 278 well-paid jobs, and the number of positions is expected to grow after the completion of the expansion projects. In 2023, Stiga RM was Kuldīga’s largest employer and taxpayer.

 

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The post Latvia’s Stiga Rm Plans To Expand Birch Plywood Production At Its Kuldīga Mill appeared first on International Forest Industries.

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by Dr. Radut