(92) Outreach to the Woody Biomass Industry in Minnesota

Michael Demchik, University of Wisconsin Steven Point, Steven Point Wisconsin

Dean Current, Center for Integrated and Natural Resources and Agricultural Management, University of Minnesota St. Paul

Gary Wyatt, University of Minnesota Extension – Mankato Regional Center, Mankato Minnesota

Session: Poster session

The state of Minnesota has aggressive state policies to encourage renewable energy production. Biomass is a renewable enery source with great potential in Minnesota. Several biomass burning plants are already operating across the state while others are in various stages of planning to build biomass burning facilities. Despite of several legistlations enacted in Minnesota to attain energy independence, there are still impediments in attaining a continous supply of biomass in the state for energy. We developed an extension program that provided outreach to each link in the supply chain: landowners, land managers, loggers and energy-intesive businessses. The outreach program generally addresses the bottleneck of supply chain of biomass through providing resource-based information to these biomass players. The content generally included information on markets, site and ecological impacts (e.g., soil and wildlife) and available resources related to biomass harvesting. This presentation will discuss and outline the biomass programming activities at the University of Minnesota Extension in addressing the bottlenecks of continous supply of biomass in the state through education.

Diomy Zamora
University of Minnesota Extension
322 Laurel St. Suite 21
Brainerd, MN 56401
Phone: 218-828-2332
zamor015@umn.edu