The picture above shows mountains that were once covered with ponderosa pine trees. Twelve years ago, they were burned by the Wallow fire, a catastrophic wildfire that burned over 500,000 acres of pine forest. It will take more than 100 years for those forests to re-grow. Thinning the forests helps reduce the severity of the forest fires so that when a fire occurs it is a healthy event rather than a harmful one. When we do not thin the vegetation the fires cause long term damage to the forests.
Tree growth, forest health, and fire danger are all improved by thinning.
To encourage the growth of fewer, higher-quality trees, thinning involves removing trees from a forest to minimize tree density and competition between individual trees. Every 10 to 15 years, second-growth forests that have been replanted undergo tree thinning to remove the weaker trees, create more space and light for the stronger trees to flourish, and enhance the general health of the forest. Often trees and branches removed during the thinning process can be made into pulp for paper products. But they can be feedstock for biochar which adds even more value.
Wood residues from forest thinning can be turned into biochar and be put back into forest soil.
Wood waste biochars have an unusual set of properties that suggest that they are a great fit for forest restoration. Ease of production from locally available feedstocks, soil health improvement from cations and beneficial microbes are some examples (Thomas and Gale, 2015). Cations help store nutrients for plant roots.
Arizona Logs and Timberworks will procure biochar from locally sourced forest residues.
Pictured here is one result from our most recent forest fire. It destroyed nearly 540,000 acres of land. The Arizona high desert area is where these forests are located. It will take over 100 years for them to fully regrow. Many of these forests are overgrown which causes them to burn hotter and faster causing catastrophic damage to the forest floor and trees.
Thinning projects done on the National Forests provide many benefits. Including water runoff needed in desert communities to sustain life, protect wildlife and communities, and allow remaining trees to grow at a faster rate and provide healthy forest stands. This means when a fire does happen it rejuvenates the forest instead of destroying it.
At AZL, all of our material in our operations comes from National Forest Thinning projects. The waste created from our work is used to make biochar.
During the pyrolysis process of making biochar, heat is created. Some of this heat is used to dry the biomass to make it more efficient and the excess heat is blown into a kiln to dry utility poles and firewood. The heat used in the kiln replaces heat derived from fossil fuels that would be used to heat the kiln.
Together with our partners at the National Forests and ARTi who provided our pyrolysis technology, AZL is working towards a better paradigm in desert forest and resource management.
