CAL FIRE Wood Products and Bioenergy Grant Program (California)

CAL FIRE is seeking applications for its Wood Products and Bioenergy Business and Workforce Development Grant Program.

Donor Name: CAL FIRE

State: California

County: All Counties

Type of Grant: Grant

Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 03/31/2022

Size of the Grant: $5,000,000

Details:

The Wood Products and Bioenergy Team (Wood Products) is part of CAL FIRE’s Climate and Energy Program. Wood Products awards funding for business and workforce development projects that support healthy resilient forests and the people and ecosystems that depend on them. Wood Products has four primary areas of responsibility, including existing and emerging technologies:

Facilities development, including solid wood and biomass processing and manufacturing, and tree nurseries
Bioenergy, including forest bio-material power generation and biofuels for domestic use and export
Forest-related workforce development at all levels including in-woods, transportation, and manufacturing
Research and development that is ancillary to forest-related business and workforce development.

CAL FIRE Wood Products supports the creation of a robust and diversified wood products industry to facilitate the economic and sustainable management of California’s forests. Grant projects shall reduce GHG emissions, strengthen the economy, and improve public health. Grants will create financial incentives for industries to invest in clean technologies, develop innovative ways to process wood products, and support the growth of a strong forest sector workforce.

Funding Information

Business Development:
- Minimum Award Request: $10,000
- Maximum Award Request: $500,000
- Grant Match Requirement: 1:1
- Minimum Award Request: $500,000
- Maximum Award Request: $2,000,000
- Grant Match Requirement: 1:2
Workforce Development
- Minimum Award Request: $10,000
- Maximum Award Request: $500,000
- Grant Match Requirement: No match requirement
- Minimum Award Request: $500,000
- Maximum Award Request: $5,000,000
- Grant Match Requirement: 9:1

Eligibility Criteria

Business Development

Business development proposals submitted by an organization whose operations have the potential to support forest restoration and/or wood products infrastructure in California will be considered. Research and Development ancillary to the business development topics identified below will also be considered. Eligible business development project applicants include, but are not limited to, the following:

Academic institutions
Local agencies, including counties, cities, and special districts
State agencies
Federal agencies
Native American tribes
Non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations
Private entities including businesses, foundations, or others not listed above

Furthermore, business development project applicants should be involved in at least one of the following business endeavors:

Primary wood processing for wholesale and retail markets
Tree nursery capacity/facilities improvement
- Seedlings must be made available for private landowners
Chip processing
Logging, forestry, or other forest-industry support services
- Includes:
  - Wood utilization and/or marketing
  - Secondary wood processing that creates demand-pull for California primary wood processing
  - Fuels treatments, commercial logging, forested right-of-way clearing
Does not include:
- Urban forestry
- Arborist/tree trimming
Bioenergy facility development or enhancement (e.g. fuels, gasification, pyrolysis, thermal, power, and/or advanced energy production) that use forest biomass as feedstock
Forest biomass feedstock sorting and/or aggregation from various sources

Workforce Development

Applicants seeking to increase California’s workforce capacity in the fields of logging, fuels treatment, forest sector transportation, forest sector manufacturing, or other forest sector support services are eligible to apply for workforce development funding. Research and Development ancillary the workforce development topics discussed above will also be considered. Eligible workforce development project applicants include, but are not limited to, the following: