Black Hills National Forest

US Forest Service
Black Hills National Forest
1019 N. 5th Street
Custer, SD 57730
605-673-9200

Telephone for the
Hearing Impaired
605-673-9227

News Release

USDA Forest Service

Black Hills National Forest

Contact: Frank Carroll (605) 673-9216, or email us at r2 blackhills webinfo@fs.fed.us

BLACK HILLS NATIONAL FOREST

WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THE EXTRA WOOD!

CUSTER, SD: DECEMBER 16, 2008

The Black Hills National Forest has thousands of tons of wood that must either be burned or used for some good purpose, like making formula one race car fuel.

Biomass, as the extra wood is called, is a renewable energy source that can be used as fuel or for industrial production.

Officials say biomass in the form of pine trees grows quickly in the Black Hills. “On the Black Hills National Forest at any point in time we have about 40,000 hand piles (3 to 6 ft high, 4 to 10 ft in diameter) and 2,400 machine piles (created by automated harvesting equipment, often the size of a house),” said Frank Carroll, Planning & Public Affairs Staff for the Forest.

Carroll said the world’s energy market currently relies heavily on fossil fuels that are nonrenewable and are not able to be restored or replenished in the foreseeable future. “This realization is driving the development and use of alternative fuels,” he said.

Today’s excess slash piles could be a significant source of biomass energy for heat, biofuels for cars, and small diameter wood products, Carroll said. A biofuels plant at Upton, Wyoming, is using Black Hills slash to make high grade fuel on a limited basis.

Chadron State College (CSC) in Chadron, Nebraska, is using slash to heat the school. “South of the Black Hills, in northwestern Nebraska, this college (CSC) has effectively heated its campus with biomass for 17 years, regularly saving several thousand dollars per year when compared to heating with natural gas,” Carroll said.

The STAR Academy south of Custer, South Dakota, is also using large slash piles that are chipped and then trucked to their new biomass heating facility. The State Veterans Home at Hot Springs, South Dakota, recently received a federal grant for a biomass heating facility.

Carroll said future plans for using biomass will depend on several factors including the supply and demand for the material, cost, availability, and sustainability.

Firefighters burn slash piles to get rid of needles, limbs, and tree tops that fuel hot fires in the summer time. Burning reduces the potential for fire spread and creates seedbeds for regeneration.

For more information visit the U.S. Forest Service website at www.fs.fed.us/r2/blackhills

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