MRV Community Biomass Project
Northeastern States Research Cooperative: Research for the Northern Forest 2008 Grant
Northern Forest Alliance/UVM Community Biomass Project in the Mad River Valley
Project Description: Enhancing the sustainability of community-based biomass production and use for local energy through university-community partnerships
Abstract: With energy costs increasing rapidly, more communities in the Northern Forest are exploring options for producing and using energy from local forest biomass. Yet questions remain about how forest biomass can be produced sustainably under increasing pressures for use and conservation. This project will use action research in seven to nine communities in Washington and Addison Counties, Vermont to document, develop and enhance the impacts of two models for community-based forest biomass: a community-supported firewood program for home heating in Addison County and a multi-town effort to achieve energy independence in heating and power generation in the Mad River Valley. Local sustainability indicators will be developed to assess impacts. Results will be used to develop biomass models for other communities, as well as support university-community partnerships for more effective adaptive decision-making in the Northern Forest. This is a collaborative project between the University of Vermont (UVM), the Northern Forest Alliance (NFA), and Vermont Family Forests (VFF). The two areas of focus are Addison County and the Mad River Valley. The Addison County effort will be led by VFF and focused on a community-supported firewood program while the MRV’s project will be led by NFA and focus on aspects of the community’s goal of achieving energy independence.
The project goals are to:
1. Improve understanding and effectiveness of renewable local wood biomass production and conservation.
2. Develop a model for consensus-based, community identification and implementation of sustainable, local wood biomass projects.
3. Create a foundation for improved collaborative learning among universities and forest communities to increase the impact of sustainability initiatives in the Northern Forest.
General MRV Project Summary
NFA will work with UVM faculty and students and Biomass Energy Resource Center (BERC) to implement a three-year action research project to implement and monitor a shared multi-town effort toward achieving energy independence in the four to five towns of the Mad River Valley in Washington County, Vermont. The project will contribute to the question “how can communities in and near the Northern Forest produce and use local forest biomass to meet their energy needs in ways that are sustainable, efficient and fair?” and be framed within the larger methodological question of “how can universities and communities work together more effectively to share learning and enhance the impacts of sustainability initiatives in the Northern Forest?”
Mad River Valley Community Biomass Project: Assess to what extent the mad river valley can supply its heating needs from sustainably harvested local wood.
Research Questions
§ Given that it is a stated goal in the MRV to achieve full energy independence – while adhering to and fostering values related to rejuvenation and sustainability — what percentage can sustainably harvested woody biomass reasonably contribute to the overall equation of striving for this energy autonomy?
§ How can our community use significantly more wood energy in ways that are at once sustainable, efficient, local and fair?
§ Help us to answer: What should our community’s energy strategy look like? Rather than simply substituting biomass for fossil fuels, can we figure out how to dramatically reduce our total fuel use and then substitute sustainable, local fuels?
§ Inclusive in the attempt to answer the overarching questions are the specific goals to:
- Engage the community in dialogue and exploration of the feasibility of a multi-jurisdictional pellet-making facility, given local forest capacity, potential future demand, community-driven sustainability parameters, etc.
- Determine how transportation of material and products affects the effort to heat with local and sustainable wood products, i.e. what is the community tolerance for transportation of wood and wood products into, around, and out of the Valley, and how wide of a radius makes sense to import and potentially export wood biomass and/or products given the overarching goal of sustainability and reducing carbon footprint?
- Assess what percentage of the woodchips going to the Harwood facility can be sourced locally and how can we help facilitate more local sources being available going into the future?
BASIC WORK PLAN
Action items from project grant proposal:
1) UVM and/or BERC (Biomass Energy Resource Center) will lead the process of collecting both qualitative and quantitative data on the current use, production and management of forest-based biomass in the MRV. This baseline data will cover:
§ Forest condition
§ Existing and recent biomass production and consumption
§ Community energy priorities
§ Community knowledge about biomass options
This data will be collected and assessed using a variety of methods including a survey administered to landowners and stakeholders, and a variety of quantitative data collection instruments.
2) Northern Forest Alliance (NFA) will work with individuals and community groups within the Mad River Valley (such as the VFN’s Energy Group, Mad River Sustainability Group, conservation commissions, and the Mad River Valley Planning District) to a) identify practices that will improve the community’s production, use, or management of biomass and b) define local indicators or values for sustainability. It will also c) document community decision-making processes surrounding biomass and efforts toward energy independence as well as d) work with the community on setting and refining goals for the project as it progresses through its three-year timespan.
Project Status
§ UVM, BERC, VFF, and NFA are currently developing the data collection methodologies that will be used for the project(s), given the refined goals set for the community-based biomass project for the Valley.
§ NFA will begin working with the community to develop and define practices and indicators to frame the research so that the data that is collected and assessments arrived at are useful – and reflect the community’s values. UVM and NFA will work with the community to then monitor these practices and indicators throughout the project’s duration.
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