Formatter Testing
From OnTrackNorthAmerica
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New Mexico Sustainable Forestry Business Plan
This initiative, an OnTrackNorthAmerica project in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service, powerfully aligns the work of agencies and businesses with local communities' needs, opportunities, and knowledge in addressing the impacts and causes of the massive 2022 Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon wildfires.
The following is the framework for an action plan—a living document of the community’s collective thinking for advancing the critical conversations and action required to succeed.
What is the initial objective of the business plan?
To integrate the ideas and needs of landowners, loggers, mill owners, transportation providers, and the public sector into a commercially viable plan for rapidly scaling up forest restoration, treatment, and processing.
What is the opportunity?
The income from multiple value streams can pay for clearing dead timber and thinning green wood, which, in turn, helps pay for forest and watershed restoration.
What is the next step?
Completing a “Community Forest-to-Market Action Plan” by April 30, 2023.
What will this Plan clarify?
What elements of a complete forest-to-market strategy add up to a viable short-term surge and a long-lasting approach to forest, watershed, and community recovery and renewal?
What governance and public engagement strategies are most effective for sustaining forest thinning and landscape and watershed recovery?
How can these strategies be integrated into a durable, holistic solution that positively influences the vitality of rural communities?
What are the components of the Action Plan?
Forest recovery and treatment plan
Optimal harvesting-to-processing plan for multiple value streams
Stakeholder roles and participation plan (who is doing what)
Transportation and logistics plan
Equipment plan
Month-by-month expense and revenue plan
Sustaining organization and governance design
What are the value streams to evaluate?
Cants
Lumber
Wood Pellets
Wood Chips
Mulch
Animal bedding/shavings
Compost
Firewood
Vigas
Specialty Wood Products
Treated Posts
Latillas (Wood stays)
OSB and other stranded material
Wood mass to biochar
Wood mass to energy
Secondary processing
Recreation
Ecosystem services
Agriculture
Fire mitigation
Carbon credits
Federal and state funding
Who currently provides forest products and services in the region, and what are their needs and capacities?
Landowners
Watershed associations
Forestry Industry
Trucking and transportation companies
Land Grants
Local and Indigenous Peoples
Local, state, and federal agencies
Landscape conservation collaboratives
Environmental entities
Consultants/experts
Foundations
Investors/lenders
Scientific and research organizations
Who wants to participate in these efforts to revive our forested landscapes?
What are the silvicultural prescriptions and feedstock volumes?
What is the current status of the state’s stand-based inventory?
What entity owns and manages each forest stand, i.e., federal, state, county, tribal, or private?
What types of trees and sizes, including species, age, health, stand structure, and photosynthetic activity?
What are the slopes and aspects (direction)?
What percentage of the forest is burned or likely to burn soon?
What is the current condition of the stand and its anticipated condition/deterioration over the coming months while harvesting activity can be scaled up?
What cultural, ecological, and hydrological values need to be addressed?
What is the current forest management plan for the entire forest, and is it up to date?
What is the current forest management plan for the stand, and is it up to date?
What activity is going on in each forest? What species are harvested? Who is currently harvesting each forest? How does each entity type approach its forestry management activities? Community or Indigenous values or resources?
Which stands are not being managed to meet the forest restoration goals, particularly overstocking?
Where is the forest composition relative to historic baseline conditions?
What was the historic range of variation, and how do we move closer to those conditions?
What is the silvicultural prescription?
What are the species, tree sizes, log volumes, and logging residues to be removed based on the silvicultural prescription?
What quantity and type of byproducts (e.g., forest slash) are generated at each forest? Are they shipped, and if so, where and how?
What quantity and type of waste products are generated at each forest, and how and where are they disposed of?
What are the most significant unmet opportunities?
What material and volumes from each stand need new market solutions?
Which entities are in the best position for conducting the harvesting activities in each forest, based on multiple factors, including:
How do the feedstock volumes add up at the regional level?
How does each stand relate to other stands in the region such that the aggregate regional volume of common material is identified?
What do recent forest fires mean to the temporal concerns of forestry?
How long do we have before burned wood has to be removed and used as timber?
How long do we have before burned wood has to be removed and used as biomass?
How does the urgency of ecological restoration demand our focused attention on optimizing existing service providers versus pulling in resources from across the nation?
What does the surge in harvesting mean for future supply and, therefore, commercial concerns now?
How can work on the urgent priority areas be done to serve the next set of priorities?
Is there a basis for installing “mobile” facilities, including new technology-focused ones, that can be moved to other forest regions?
What are the “Consequences of Delay”?
What is the best treatment of ground cover in the aftermath of fires for the long-term vitality of forests, and how is this integrated into forestry operations?
How do we address high oak densities post-fire to accelerate recovery to later serial stages?
What changes in genetic or ecological composition are needed to anticipate climate change?
What are the best approaches to stump treatment?
Given shifting climates, what are the desired future conditions for our landscapes, watersheds, and communities?
How do in-forest logistics assets determine accessibility for harvesting?
What are the roads in each forest stand, and what entity owns and maintains those roads?
What are the legal guidelines for road use, construction, and maintenance?
What are these roads’ conditions, how has fire damaged them, and how are they vulnerable?
What work is needed on which roads for accessibility to treat forests?
What are the seasonal characteristics of these roads?
What are the characteristics of the critical infrastructure elements in the forest? What do we have? What’s missing?
Where are new roads and cleared land needed to render forest material removal viable?
Given the characteristics and regulations of the in-forest logistics, what percentage of the forest stands are physically accessible?
Which entities are in the best position to conduct the transportation activities from each forest?
What is the composition of the regional infrastructure for forest materials’ logistics?
What is the region’s publicly accessible road network?
What is the general condition of forest road access?
What are these area roads' weight, clearance, and safety restrictions?
Where are the existing railroad main lines, branch lines, spur lines, sidings, and loading infrastructure?
Where are the existing rail- and truck-served infrastructure assets for transload, distribution, and storage?
Who owns each facility and network section, and what services and capacities do they have?
What is the status of the rail line from Albuquerque to Raton?
Where can new rail loading facilities enhance forestry operations and minimize transportation costs and impacts?
Are these new developments commercially viable, or do they need public subsidization?
What are the performance characteristics and costs of available equipment types for harvesting, in-forest logistics, and regional transportation?
What are the harvesting equipment choices?
What are the transportation equipment choices?
What existing and new capacity is needed for short- and long-term harvesting?
Which entities are in the best position to conduct harvesting activities in each forest?
What is the optimal conception of existing and potential new processing facilities, including mills?
Where are the in-state and out-of-state timber (lumber, pellets, paper, paperboard, energy, biomass) processing facilities?
What does each existing facility need to reach its capacity expansion goals?
How do existing mills fit into a regional strategy?
How do we coordinate processing capacity for optimal benefit?
What is the optimal size and location of new processing capacity for conventional products?
What other value streams can be nurtured to encompass a complete forest treatment-to-market approach, including new uses of biomass for energy and construction materials?
What inbound freight, such as papermaking chemicals and animal feeds, exists for forestry and connected and parallel industries?
What new associated product manufacturing facilities are made viable by this coordinated forestry planning?
What new investments in existing or new technologies can be deployed in the region in the short- and long term?
Where should new processing facilities with new technologies and products be optimally located?
What forest materials need additional capacity to be met outside the region?
Where are the out-of-area wood processing facilities in the west?
What are their capacities?
What new logistics solutions and capital are needed for this long-distance transportation?
What are the non-timber industry benefits of improved thinning and holistic forest management?
Reduces future fire risk and improves ecological function
Accommodates human access and enables ecological and watershed restoration
Improves balance between juniper and pinon pine for healthier ecosystems
Stabilizes the soil and restores the landscape
Increased downstream stream flow from forest thinning and fire recovery treatment mitigates drought and climate change and improves water access for agricultural producers
Improves wildlife habitat and diversity
Facilitates grazing and other traditional lifeways
Advances livelihoods consistent with local and Indigenous values
What community factors should be identified and weighed in decision-making?
What demographic and economic dynamics of nearby communities should inform the project, e.g., population demographics, primary industries, unemployment, and economic conditions?
What are the economic development goals of the local communities?
Which communities and residents should be included in evaluating and siting new facilities and infrastructure?
What governance and commercial innovations are needed to sustain this collaboration?
How do we best integrate local and Indigenous values into our process?
How can relations with and between local, state, and federal governments be improved?
What new governance arrangements need to be undertaken to create these improvements?
What corporate or coop structures are needed to reflect holistic, collaborative frameworks?
Who should be seated at the table, and how is it organized?
How do we fund whole communities and not just individuals, businesses, homes, and landowners?
What financial and logistical support is sensible to be funded by the state of New Mexico and the federal government?
Through what public-private partnership can the completion and implementation of the Action Plan be supported?
What are state or federal entities' major fiduciary and statutory requirements?
What governance arrangements are needed to meet these state and federal requirements?
How do we address inurement prohibitions in organizational structures?
How do the financial elements of this forest-to-market solution add up to an economically viable, culturally informed, and environmentally-sound approach for everyone involved?
What are the needs and opportunities for investors in this Forest-to-Market Community Action Plan?
Who are the investors that want to make these investments?
What questions are we asking specific stakeholder groups, and what have they contributed so far to the collective thinking?
