Nevada Division of Forestry Statewide Assessment to Expand Current Biomass Operations 2009 The Nevada Division of Forestry (NDF) is tasked from burn piles in the field to the boiler at NNCC. with creating a state wide assessment to look at the The biomass was delivered at a cost of approximately potential for expanding the fuels for school program $5 per ton, a significant savings over the $39 per ton to public and private sectors. This assessment will NNCC was paying through contract suppliers. Our address the following; current fuels reduction project second project involved fuels reduction by products areas, vegetation types in those project areas and the from Sugar Pine (California) State Park in the Lake amount of fuel in the project area. Tahoe Basin. Approximately 32 tons of biomass was delivered to NNCC at a cost of $5 per ton, a savings of This assessment will address current biomass opera- $24 a ton. tions, methodology on our assessment and problems we have encountered with our current biomass opera- In 2004 The White Pine County School District tions. was awarded a Fuels for Schools Grant for $340,000 to construct a fuel efficient biomass heating system Current Biomass Operations (replacing an oil burning boiler) at David E. Norman Elementary School. The project also served as a dem- Currently NDF is creating Biomass in the Carson onstration of biomass technology and a focal point for Range for the Northern Nevada Correctional Center further research and biomass education. In 2005 a 3 (NNCC) in Carson City. million BTU/Hour biomass fired steam heating system The Western Nevada Biomass Transportation Project received funding in 2008 to purchase “roll off bins” a truck and other equipment to provide a portion of the transportation infrastructure to cost effectively deliver woody biomass to the Northern Nevada Cor- rectional Center (NNCC) biomass fueled one mega- watt combined heat and power plant. The funds were used to purchase a 2005 Freight- liner truck equipped with a “Stellar Hook” and four roll off bins. The equipment was placed in service Boiler at the David E. Norman Elemnatry School came online at David E. Norman Elementary school providing heat for approximately 40,000 square feet Biomass Chip Bin and Truck of classroom space and utilizing 150 tons of biomass in November of 2008 and almost immediately in the annually. In 2006 an additional $13,000 was awarded field. The first project, a Bureau of Land Management to White Pine School District to facilitate the trans- (BLM) fuels reduction project at Indian Creek Reser- fer of 1000 tons of biomass from a Bureau of Land voir, demonstrated the incredible potential of a closed Management (BLM) hazardous fuels reduction project loop biomass delivery system. Utilizing the bins, on Mt. Wilson some 100 miles away. The biomass NDF was able to divert 75 tons of woody biomass would have been economically unfeasible with out the transportation offset from Fuels for Schools. A to develop the state wide fuels for school assessment: biomass supply was also established by intercepting wood waste at the Ely Landfill. Cultural- This is a polygon layer developed by Nevada De- The development of the Round Hill Biomass Trans- partment of Transportation to show the footprint of fer Site was a significant accomplishment during the building. The purpose of this layer was to show loca- reporting quarter, and an example of the end product tions of building, parks, school, athletic fields, cem- of biomass networking. NDF in partnership with Ta- eteries and other public facilities. All parks, recreation, athletic fields, golf courses and shooting ranges where deleted from the layer. The final results are actual public building locations. This is the layer that will be used to identify potential public facilities. As of this report, a request was submitted to Nevada Division of Environmental Protection to determine if it was possible to get a data set with all private and public boilers. NDF has not heard back from NDEP yet. Project areas- This layer was developed based on current ND projects in the Carson Range, Schell Creek Mountains, Virginia City Highlands, Mt. Charleston area and iden- tified projects for Lincoln County through the Ameri- can Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The polygons are a general representation of the potential project areas. Vegetation Layer- The location of the Round Hill Biomass Transfer Site This data set was created as part of a U.S. Geologi- cal Survey study, done in cooperation with the Nevada hoe Douglas Sewer District (TDSD), TDFPD, Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, to evaluate the Tahoe Conservation District (NTCD), NFSC, and susceptibility and vulnerability of ground water to an- LTBMU obtained a permit from the Tahoe Regional thropogenic contamination. This data set was created Planning Agency (TRPA) to establish and operate a as part of an effort to provide statewide information on biomass transfer facility in Round Hill, Nevada, that vegetation and land cover. The National Gap Analysis will provide approximately 1400 square feet of tempo- Program (GAP) is a national-level effort for identify- rary storage for pre-chipped biomass from fuels reduc- ing the degree to which native animal species and tion and defensible space activities in Douglas County natural communities are represented in our present- and the Lake Tahoe Basin. The facility will operate day mix of conservation lands. GAP is coordinated between May 1st and November 30th and is antici- by the Biological Resources Discipline of the U.S. pated to process 60 cubic yards of biomass per week Geological Survey (USGS). The program has a close from the Lake Tahoe Basin to the Northern Nevada working relationship with the Nature Conservancy. Correctional Center power plant. The purpose of the GAP is to provide broad geograph- ic information on the status of ordinary species and Assessment Methodology their habitats in order to provide land managers and others with the information they need to make better- The assessment was done using Geographic Infor- informed decisions. The GAP data for Nevada was mation System (GIS) software. NDF currently uses reclassified and used as a vegetation map. The GAP ArcGIS 9.3 for their GIS needs. data was created by the Utah Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, at the Utah State University in NDF used the following data layers and information October 1996. A final state report for Nevada of the GAP data has not been released yet. For a description Mixed Forest, Sierra Mixed Forest, Subalpine Forest, of GAP analysis see Edwards and others (1995). The Alpine Forest purpose was to aggregate vegetation types into a more general classification scheme as it would relate to The vegetation layer is a raster data set with a 30 hydrologic applications. The GAP data was compared meter cell size. The number of cells for each classi- to elevation zones, soil types, and precipitation to help fication was added the cells together then multiplied group the original 65 classes. The original 65 classes by 900 (30x30) to get the number of square meters. of the GAP data was grouped into 26 vegetation cover Using a conversion program the square meters where types. These closely matched the Biological Resourc- converted into acres. The number of acres where then es Research Center (BRRC) aggregation suggested on multiplied by the values from Aids to Determining their web site (Biological Resources Research Center, Fuel Models fore Estimating Fire Behavior for fuel 2004). BRRC is part of the Department of Biology at load for the different vegetation types (see maps in in the University of Nevada, Reno. The BRRC reclas- appendix 1). In doing this classification, it enable NDF sification has 18 classes. The USGS classification to quantify the amount of fuels (potential biomass) for renames BRRC’s montane classes and identifies more each project area (see table). forest and scrub types. The USGS classification also identifies more hydrologic type classes such as playa and greasewood. The USGS class code is somewhat Tons of Fuel Project Area similar to the Anderson Level II classification system 2,998,135 Carson Range (Anderson and others, 1976). Limited field verifica- 35,795 Virginia City Highlands tion was done on the resulting vegetation cover types. 1,365,540 Mt. Charleston 2,889,070 Schell Creek Using the classification system for this data set, 119,005 Lincoln County NDF used the following vegetation categories: Sagebrush 7,407,545 Total Mountain Sagebrush Mountain Shrub NDF created a 50 mile buffer around the project Pinyon-Juniper/Mixed forest areas in the GIS software to identify potential facilities Sierra Mountain shrub that would also be economically feasible to transport Aspen the biomass from the project area to the facility. NDF Mesquite took the modified cultural layer and using the 50 mile Ponderosa Pine/Mixed forest buffer as the boundary, extracted all facilities within Fir/Mixed Forest the buffered area. The initial analysis resulted in over Sierra Mixed Forest 2200 potential facilities (see appendix B). Subalpine Forest Alpine Forest Current Biomass Challenges Using information from Aids to Determining Fuel The biggest challenges that continue for NDF and Models fore Estimating Fire Behavior ( Anderson, Hal the collection of biomass are the transportation net- E., National Wildfire Coordinating Group Publication- work. A project with gentle slopes or right of way fuel General Technical Report INT - 122, 1982) classifica- treatments for the Nevada Department of Transporta- tion for 13 Fire Behavior Fuels Model (FBFM) , NDF tion is some of the most economically feasible because classified the vegetation types into amount of fuels in of the access to the biomass. These types of projects tons/per acre. The classification is the following: are close to existing road networks and the ability to 5 tons/acres- Sagebrush, Mountain Sagebrush get the necessary equipment to collect the biomass 10 tons/acre- Mountain Shrub, Pinyon-Juniper/ Mixed forest Some other issues related to getting biomass to 15 tons/acre- Sierra Mountain shrub, Aspen, and needed facilities is access to forested lands.