Larimer County presents woody-biomass study; proposes satellite yards and processing network to scale wildfire mitigation

Larimer County officials on Jan. 22 presented preliminary results from a Woody Biomass Study and Strategy Project and outlined a conceptual Biomass Processing Network intended to increase the pace and scale of wildfire mitigation and forest-health treatments.

The project team, led by Josh Roberts, mitigation coordinator with the county Office of Emergency Management, told the Board of County Commissioners the study combines remote-sensing estimates with land-manager treatment data to produce a planning dashboard and a range of estimates for removable woody biomass across the county.

Why it matters: county staff said the current barrier to expanding forest treatments is what happens to the residual woody material ("slash") after thinning and other mitigation work. The study team described a supply-chain approach — satellite yards for local aggregation and downstream biomass processing sites — intended to reduce haul costs, aggregate feedstock and increase opportunities for utilization such as compost, biochar, heat, mass timber and other markets.

"One of the challenges to that pace and scale increase is the biomass that's generated from those treatments," said Josh Roberts. "A…