Opportunity Information: Apply for USDA FS WOOD INNOVATIONS 2024
The USDA Forest Service "Wood Utilization Assistance" (Wood Innovations) funding opportunity is a discretionary grant program aimed at rapidly growing wood products and wood energy markets across the United States. The central idea is to turn hazardous fuels and other low-value forest residues (including material generated from forest restoration and wildfire risk reduction work on National Forest System lands and other forestlands) into usable products and energy, instead of treating them as waste that is expensive to haul, pile, or dispose of. By strengthening demand and building out the infrastructure to use this material, the program is designed to support forest management at scale while also delivering local economic benefits.
This opportunity is tied to several federal authorities and initiatives, including the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 Farm Bill), Rural Revitalization Technologies (7 U.S.C. 6601), and the Inflation Reduction Act. In practical terms, the Forest Service is using this program to address a nationwide bottleneck: forest restoration and hazardous fuels reduction projects produce a lot of byproduct wood, but markets and processing capacity are uneven, and in many places they are not strong enough to absorb the material. The grants are meant to help close that gap by supporting projects that can move from concept to implementation and that can measurably expand real-world utilization.
The program priorities focus on three outcomes. First, it seeks to reduce hazardous fuels and improve forest health on National Forest System and other forestlands, which directly supports wildfire risk reduction and restoration objectives. Second, it aims to reduce the cost of forest management across all land types by improving the economics of removing and transporting woody biomass and small-diameter material. Third, it is intended to promote the economic and environmental health of communities, particularly those connected to working forests, wood supply chains, and rural development opportunities.
The Forest Service emphasizes that competitive proposals will be more advanced and closer to execution rather than early-stage concepts. A major eligible project type is completing late-stage development work required to reach financing and construction, such as engineering designs, cost analyses, and permitting. This applies both to commercial buildings that use wood as a primary building material (for example, mass timber or other advanced wood construction) and to wood energy projects that are far enough along that these final steps will help them secure investment. The solicitation is explicit that early phase project development proposals are not expected to be competitive, signaling a preference for projects that can be built or deployed soon and that have clear pathways to market impact.
Beyond late-stage development, the opportunity supports projects that expand manufacturing capacity and other wood products infrastructure, as well as market development tied to forest ecosystem restoration. That can include investments and planning work that help create or grow processing capability for restoration byproducts, strengthen supply chains, or create stable demand for material that otherwise has limited commercial value. Another category includes demonstration or showcase projects that quantify the environmental and economic benefits of using wood in an actual commercial building and then project the benefits if similar approaches are replicated nationally, using construction market trends to justify scalability and broader impact.
The solicitation also includes several capacity-building and market-organization approaches. It invites proposals to create statewide wood utilization teams and statewide wood energy teams, but only from states that do not currently have an existing team and have not had a former team, which suggests the Forest Service is trying to expand this coordinating structure into new states rather than duplicating existing efforts. In addition, it encourages development of clusters of wood energy projects within a geographic area or within a specific sector, with examples like prisons, hospitals, universities, manufacturing, or other industrial users. The logic here is that clustered demand can reduce project risk, standardize equipment and contracting, and make fuel supply and operations more efficient. Finally, the opportunity supports efforts to overcome market barriers and stimulate growth of wood energy in the commercial sector, which can include addressing adoption hurdles that keep otherwise viable projects from moving forward.
Eligibility is broad and includes for-profit entities; state and local governments; Indian Tribes; school districts; community-based nonprofit organizations; institutions of higher education; and special purpose districts such as public utility districts, fire districts, conservation districts, and ports. The program is administered by the USDA Forest Service under CFDA 10.674, and the award ceiling listed in the source data is $300,000 per award. The original closing date shown is December 15, 2023, and the opportunity is identified as USDA FS WOOD INNOVATIONS 2024.
For applicants looking for guidance, the Forest Service provides a prerecorded application webcast (https://vimeo.com/872993472) and directs applicants to the Wood Innovations homepage for additional details, along with official instructions and the required application form (FS-1500-050). Overall, this funding opportunity is geared toward practical, near-term investments that can quickly expand wood utilization, improve the economics of forest restoration and fuels reduction, and produce measurable community and environmental benefits by building stronger end markets for restoration-generated wood.Apply for USDA FS WOOD INNOVATIONS 2024
- The Forest Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Wood Utilization Assistance" and is now available to receive applicants.
- Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.674.
- This funding opportunity was created on 2023-10-18.
- Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-12-15. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
- Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $300,000.00 in funding.
- Eligible applicants include: Others.
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