BDO ZoneCONNECT Webinar: Butte County, California

October 03, 2024

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(Bioeconomy Development Opportunity Zone Initiative) On September 12, 2024, Ecostrat Inc. and the BDO Zone Initiative, in collaboration with TheDigest, hosted the BDO ZoneCONNECT webinar, highlighting an investment-grade BDO Zone in Butte County, California rated ‘BBB’ for 223,000 bone dry tons per year of Woody Biomass.

The webinar was moderated by Jim Lane, Editor of TheDigest, and featured key insights from Aryn Garswood, Head of the BDO Zone Initiative. Participants included Jim Houtman, Director of Forest Health at the Butte County Fire Safe Council, and Katie Simmons, Deputy Administrative Officer, Economic & Community Development at Butte County. The discussion highlighted the regions’ preparedness for bio-based projects, focusing on their abundant biomass resources, robust infrastructure, project-ready sites, and attractive local incentives, including favorable tax benefits.

BDO ZoneCONNECT, a joint initiative with The Daily Digest, aims to facilitate connections and stimulate development interest within BDO Zone communities. It serves as a catalyst for networking, sharing new BDO Zone ratings, and attracting a diverse global audience of stakeholders, including investors, bio-based project developers, financiers, and community leaders.

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Summary of Presenter Remarks

Bob Kodrzycki, Project Director, Ecostrat:

“Butte County has over 220K dry tons per year of low risk biomass. This includes pulpwood, forest residues and residuals from sawmill operations. The price range is between $50-117/ton. There have also been a lot of trees damaged by wildfires; these figures are not included in our rated quantity.”
“The infrastructure is very good for bioproject development. The site we evaluated in downtown Oroville has rail adjacent to the site and access to seaports such as the inland port and the large major ports in San Francisco.”
“There is not a lot of competition for this biomass. This is because there are no pulp mills in California so the market for pulpwood is wide open. This is an area that has low competition and a lot of material that’s available for your bio based projects.”

Katie Simmons, Deputy Administrative Officer, Economic & Community Development, Butte County:

“We are really proud of the BDO Zone rating and all the work done by Ecostrat in conjunction with stakeholders in the County.”
“We had a series of wildfires in 2017 and the wildfire in 2018 is ranked as the States deadliest and most destructive fire. We had 85 fatalities and lost 14K housing units so economic development around utilizing the reduction of wildrisk risk for economic gain is of great interest to our economic development team.”
“The Cal Oak Road Site was previously slated for a biomass to energy facility that is soon to occupy another location in the County. It’s already been looked at for this particular use so it’s a low barrier site to consider for developers.”
“We have several areas in the county in the federal opportunity zone and in the recycling market development zone. I would encourage people interested in siting a facility here in Butte County to take a look at maps to see what properties fall in these zones so they can look at what the tax credit benefits will look like for their business.”

Jim Houtman, Director of Forest Health, Butte County Fire Safe Council:

“We have hundreds of thousands of trees to get rid of. We have tried to attract businesses to Butte County to remove and process this wood. Currently there are no facilities in the County so a lot of the material coming off the forest needs to travel over 100 miles to different facilities to be processed. Having something closer is the major need we have.”
“In a lot of the areas where we have done mechanical thinnings we are averaging 25-50 bdt/acre. The problem with removing this material is that it is going over 100 miles to different locations. Looking at the forest there is a lot of material that needs to come out, either green or burned and it all needs to find a home rather than just sitting there rotting. We’re working every angle to get as much fuel out of the forest. We just need a great place to take it to.”

For more information on the Butte County, CA BDO Zone, click here, and for their slide deck, click here.

Contact Information:

Jim Houtman, BDO Zone Local Development Leader (LDL) and Director of Forest Health, Butte County Fire Safe Council (jimh@buttefiresafe.net).

Katie Simmons, BDO Zone Local Development Leader (LDL) and Deputy Administrative Officer, Economic & Community Development at Butte County (ksimmons@buttecounty.net).

Aryn Garswood, Head of the BDO Zone Initiative (aryn@ecostrat.com). READ MORE