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Private firm and county officials pitch local biomass plan to turn forest residuals into jobs and carbon storage
Summary
Graphite, a biomass carbon‑removal company, told the Coconino County Board of Supervisors it plans a pilot operation to process forest residuals into inert, compressed blocks that could be used to backfill exhausted gravel pits. The firm said the approach would reduce on‑site burning, help reclaim mine pits and support roughly 20–25 local operations jobs once operational.
Graphite representative Saskia Versteeg told the board that Project Ponderosa would use locally collected forest residuals — slash piles and unmerchantable material from restoration projects — to produce dried, compressed blocks that would be stacked to backfill exhausted aggregate pits and then covered and revegetated.
"The 3 main benefits we want this project to bring to Coconino County: 1, reducing wildfire risk; 2, reclaim mining; and 3, creating new jobs," Saskia Versteeg said during an overview presentation to the Board of Supervisors. She said the company’s initial scope would use about 80,000 green tons of biomass per year, which Graphite estimated is equivalent to work on roughly 2,000–3,000 acres of restoration annually.
Why it matters: County staff and local restoration partners have repeatedly identified a "biomass bottleneck" (residual material with few nearby end uses) that drives on‑site burning or expensive transport out of the region. Graphite’s pitch — drying and compressing material for local storage and reclamation rather than conversion to fuels or shipping out of state — is designed to keep material local, reduce on‑site pile burning and provide an additional revenue outlet for restoration contractors.
What the company said: Graphite said it operates a full‑scale facility in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and that its pilot operation employs about 20 onsite workers; it expects the planned Coconino operation to create 20–25 local operations jobs once built. "We have a full scale project employing 20 employees in Pine Bluff; that's why we think we can do this here," Versteeg said.
How the process would work: Graphite would receive residuals by truck, dry the material so it becomes inert, compress the material into modular blocks and place those blocks as engineered fill into exhausted pits, then cap and revegetate the surface to restore habitat and store carbon underground. The company described one near‑term candidate site — a former rock quarry on private land owned by Babbitt Ranches — and said that site is already zoned for inert material storage.
Partner response and next steps: Economic development staff and nonprofit partners at The Nature Conservancy and EconA described work to connect Graphite to restoration contractors and landowners. County forest‑restoration staff welcomed the interest but emphasized that cost and logistics remain the central hurdles: transporting slash from steep or remote slopes can be expensive, and some existing markets (pallet mills, biomass power) remain needed to absorb mixed‑grade material.
Flood Control Director Lucinda Andriani and forest restoration director Jay Smith said the county will continue to coordinate permitting and community outreach and stressed that any commercial operation would need to meet state environmental requirements and local permitting rules before accepting material.
What to watch: Graphite and county staff said they would pursue community outreach, permitting and pilot storage work with Babbitt Ranches; they did not announce a construction timeline. The company requested early engagement on community education about trucking, material composition and site restoration.
Ending: The board signaled cautious support for continued discussions and asked staff to return with more detail on permitting, local workforce training and how a pilot storage site could work without displacing existing local wood users.
