In Western Canada, wildfires are at a crisis level. The best way to mitigate them is to remove and pelletize their fuel: thinnings and slash piles.
The cost of wildfires on the economy is enormous. In 2018, British Columbia spent $270 million on fire suppression. There were also hundreds of millions of dollars allocated towards insurance claims from loss of property, reforestation costs, and the lost value in timber. This number can be decreased through the careful harvesting and thinning of wildfire fuels in these forests. The pelletization of fire hazard materials, whether those be thinnings, slash piles, or whole logs, can improve forest health and provide additional benefits to the economy.
Great Bear Biomass Innovation is working with the Chemical and Biological Engineering department at the University of British Columbia to explore possible business models to cost effectively create wood pellets from slash piles and wildfire fuels in western Canada.
With technology that we are developing for mobile pelletization machinery, we will be creating new economic opportunities in western Canada’s forests while protecting the environment and preventing forest fires.
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Contact us to learn how we can mitigate forest fire risk in your managed forests.