The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service’s State & Private Forestry program, recently awarded almost $6 million in grants to seven public school districts for “Fuels for Schools” projects. The grants are being funded through The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
Grant recipients and amounts are:
Southern Reynolds R-II School District: $970,000
Perry County 32 School District: $970,000
Steelville R-III School District (Crawford County): $900,000
Rolla 31 School District Junior High Building (Phelps County): $760,000
Gainesville R-V School District (Ozark County): $970,000
Eminence R-I Elementary (Shannon County): $350,000
Mountain View-Birch Tree Liberty High School (Howell County): $850,000
“Fuels for Schools funds will help these schools and school districts install and operate boiler systems that use woody biomass from local public and private forest land to heat and cool their facilities,” explains grant administrator John Tuttle, Forestry Field Programs supervisor for the MDC. “This technology should help reduce dependence on fossil fuels, reduce energy costs, create or retain local jobs and support healthy forests and the state’s forest industry.”
Tuttle notes that Missouri’s forest products industry generates more than $5 bilion in economic activity each year and supports more than 30,000 jobs.
“The Fuels for Schools projects will help create a stronger market for woody material historically considered waste, such as unhealthy or small-diameter trees and wood debris left from logging. These products currently have little or no commercial value so the Fuels for Schools projects can provide micro-markets for wood chips produced from them. These projects also serve as examples to other schools, businesses and government agencies throughout Missouri that may be interested in wood-fueled energy systems,” he said.
Peter Maki, Coordinator of the Missouri Fuels for Schools project, works from the Top of the Ozarks RC&D office. “Missouri is very fortunate that John Tuttle of MDC was ready with a grant proposal when the stimulus program became available. With this biomass boiler technology, which has been in use for 40 years in Scandinavia, and is in many wood processing facilities across the country, we have the ability to use the cheapest fuel available to us and get away from more expensive fossil fuels. It is a bonus that we will create local jobs while improving our forests using a carbon neutral fuel, wood. Harvested sustainably, we have supply of wood fuel that will last forever.”
Maki is available to make presentations about wood fueled energy systems to schools and other interested groups throughout Missouri. He can be reached at Top of the Ozarks RC&D office, 417-967-2028, ext. 123.
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