Oregon’s wood products industry will receive $15.1 million in federal grants for 20 projects to reopen and upgrade sawmills, expand wood processing and develop mass timber and biomass applications, Oregon senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden announced.

Six Wood Products Infrastructure Assistance grants will fund sawmill and energy projects. Prairie Wood Products LLC and Co-Gen CO. LLC will each receive $2 million in Prairie City. Prairie Wood Products will restart and upgrade an existing sawmill to process low-value logs, while Co-Gen will reopen and upgrade a combined heat and power biomass energy system at a sawmill.

Malheur Forest Products LLC will receive $2 million to retrofit, modernize and reopen an idle sawmill in John Day. Wren Hill Lumber LLC will receive $2 million to upgrade a sawmill in Philomath, increasing capacity and allowing it to process small-diameter logs.

Biodynamics LLC will receive $2 million to restart idle equipment and install new equipment at its Hines facility. Forestry First LLC will receive $265.8 thousand to add a lug loader to an existing sawmill in Gilchrist.

Eleven Wood Innovations grants will fund projects involving wood processing, mass timber, wood energy and biomass. Stimson Lumber Company will receive $346.7 thousand to upgrade sawmill production equipment in Tillamook. World Forestry Center will receive $295.3 thousand to design and engineer a public mass timber pavilion in Portland.

Cedarstone LLC and the University of Oregon will each receive $300 thousand for projects involving mass timber in prefabricated homes and acoustical considerations. Traeger Pellet Grills LLC will receive $300 thousand to automate wood pellet processing in Sweet Home, while Solid Carbon Inc. will receive $300 thousand to create a market pathway for bioenergy waste in the western U.S.

Wyeast Timber Services LLC will receive $247.9 thousand to install wood processing equipment in Hood River to expand small-diameter wood utilization. Mount Hood Forest Products will receive $243.6 thousand to upgrade lumber production technologies.

Three Community Wood Grants will fund wood heating, laminated veneer lumber and biomass energy projects. Brink Brothers Inc. will receive $1 million to install a wood-fired kiln system using low-value materials to produce dried firewood.

Roseburg Forest Products Company will receive $577.2 thousand to automate a laminated veneer lumber layup line. Neiman Enterprises Inc. will receive $264.5 thousand to restore a biomass cogeneration system that has been offline since 2020.

The Oregon projects are part of $105.5 million in Wood Innovations Program grants for projects across the U.S. this year
  
Source: kdrv.com