U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, along with Reps. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, and Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, this week introduced the bipartisan Community Wood Facilities Assistance Act in Congress.
The bill is aimed at strengthening the U.S. Forest Service’s Community Wood Energy and Wood Innovation Grant Program, as well as modernizing and increasing the federal share of project costs for the Wood Innovations Grant Program, according to a news release from Gluesenkamp Perez.
Community Wood Grants provide funds to install thermally-led community wood energy systems or to build innovative wood product manufacturing facilities.
Currently, the program is oversubscribed, making it difficult for small and rural communities to get access to federal funding to build markets and products for forest products, the release stated.
The Community Wood Facilities Assistance Act would:
• Improve the Community Wood Energy and Wood Innovations Grant Program, which aids the construction of small wood products facilities, by increasing the authorization from $25 million to $50 million per year; increasing the maximum grant per facility from $1 million to $5 million; increasing the federal cost-share from 35 to 50 percent; and increasing the maximum size for community wood energy systems eligible for grant funding from 5 to 15 megawatts.
• Change the program’s name to the Community Wood Facilities Grant Program to avoid the current confusion with the similarly named Wood Innovations Grant Program.
• Lower the Wood Innovations Grant Program minimum non-federal cost-share from 50 percent to 33.3 percent. The program provides grants for proposed innovative uses and applications and the expansion of markets for wood products.
“When we have strong markets for forest products, our timber economies thrive in Southwest Washington,” Gluesenkamp Perez said in the release. “Our bipartisan bill will help bring jobs back to our woods and keep our forests healthy and manage to reduce the risk of wildfire.”
This month, Gluesenkamp Perez urged the Trump administration to refrain from cuts to federal workers that could negatively impact timber production, wildfire readiness and recreation in Southwest Washington, the release stated.
The release also stated that, earlier this year, Gluesenkamp Perez’s provisions were signed into law to extend eligibility for the Forest Service’s Good Neighbor Authority for federal forest restoration and management projects to Tribes and counties to increase opportunities for cross-boundary restoration.
The lawmakers previously introduced the legislation in the 118th Congress, but it failed.
