{"id":33610,"date":"2021-06-03T08:00:49","date_gmt":"2021-06-03T12:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=33610"},"modified":"2021-06-02T21:36:06","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T01:36:06","slug":"maryland-receives-funding-to-develop-wood-energy-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2021\/06\/03\/maryland-receives-funding-to-develop-wood-energy-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Receives Funding to Develop Wood Energy Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Funds Support Market Opportunities for Forest Products Industry<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 384px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/824\/40344443630_031aa3684a.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of forest products worker sawing log with a chainsaw\" width=\"374\" height=\"210\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by Stephen Badger\/Maryland Department of Natural Resources<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Maryland Forest Service has been awarded nearly $250,000 for a Wood Innovations Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop priority projects with the Maryland Wood Energy Team. This partnership with the Maryland Clean Energy Center, Maryland Department of Commerce, University of Maryland Extension, the USDA Forest Service, and others aims to develop wood energy facilities that will produce new jobs and develop renewable energy markets for underutilized forest products, which will in turn benefit the health of Maryland\u2019s sustainable forests.\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The funding will support the hiring of a woody biomass energy specialist who will identify wood energy opportunities throughout the state. DNR\u2019s Maryland Forest Service will collaborate with experts at the USDA Forest Service to provide design assistance to five to 10 facilities in the state that have high probability for conversion to wood fuel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cMaryland Forest Service recognized that having a specialist focused on developing wood energy projects in Maryland would be an important driver toward success,\u201d DNR Secretary Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio said. \u201cWe are thankful for the USDA funding our grant application and supporting this important initiative.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Forest Service plans to report on socioeconomic development, climate adaptation and forest stewardship benefits stemming from wood energy innovations and projects to inform the state\u2019s approach. The aim is to develop a market for woody biomass that also delivers benefits for healthy and sustainable forests, and clean and renewable energy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Departments of Natural Resources, Commerce, and other state agencies continue working with partners across the state to direct <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2020\/01\/16\/programs-and-funding-bolster-maryland-forest-products-sector\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">grants, programs, and strategies<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for building new markets for Maryland\u2019s forest products industry. Commerce has dedicated a staff member to provide support for this initiative.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThe Maryland Department of Commerce is committed to the development of the state\u2019s wood energy industry and this grant will go a long way to bringing new projects to fruition,\u201d said Commerce Secretary Kelly M. Schulz.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Funds Support Market Opportunities for Forest Products Industry The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Maryland Forest Service has been awarded nearly $250,000 for a Wood Innovations Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop priority projects with the Maryland Wood Energy Team. This partnership with the Maryland Clean Energy Center, Maryland Department<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2021\/06\/03\/maryland-receives-funding-to-develop-wood-energy-projects\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,1965],"tags":[5207,4035,5216,3021,4994,3329],"class_list":["post-33610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-maryland-forest-service","tag-forest-products","tag-jeannie-haddaway-riccio","tag-kelly-m-schulz","tag-maryland-department-of-commerce","tag-maryland-forest-service","tag-u-s-forest-service"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33610"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33612,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33610\/revisions\/33612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}