FIA

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FIA Economic Development

• Gary Lettman

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An economist is someone who didnt have enough
personality to become an accountant
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Oregon State Forester Marvin Brown

• No big deal.....just get this economy turned
  around.

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Bottom Line

• Clients having a rough time financially
• Need accurate and timely information more than
  ever
• Needs for knowledge sharing and technology
  transfer growing

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FIA Relatively Low Profile

• Immediate revenue problems severe
• Limits to solving immediate problems
• Institutional
• Political
• Legal
• Not lack of inventory information
• FIA information critical for intermediate and
  long-term solutions

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Today
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(No Transcript)
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Biomass Examples of Needed Legislative Fixes

• National Address Energy Independence and
  Security Act of 2007 to allow biomass from
  federal lands to count towards renewable fuels
  standard
• Oregon Make biomass plants constructed before
  1996 eligible for incentives

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Still Need FIA to Continue Helping Us Better
Understand Biomass Energy Potential

• For example, to help focus infrastructure
  investment
• Western Governors Association
• Areas where biomass power expansion would likely
  contribute to the need for new electrical
  transmission capacity
• Major areas missed by this analysis where states
  are aware of new biomass facilities that may
  require additional transmission capacity

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Keep working on resource availability

• Traditional timber supply studies but using
  supply/demand relationships
• Better utilizing underutilized timber resources
• Biomass to energy opportunities
• Tie to existing and potential primary and
  secondary manufacturers

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More Examples

• Work to make BIOSUM and other tools more
  reality-based (model imperfect assumptions
  legion)
• Keep working to produce credible carbon baseline
  and change estimates
• Increase economic development work
• Secondary mill survey
• E.g., Immediate industry need impact work in
  Montana

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Where to go from here

• Continue providing the best and most timely
  forest information possible (particularly about
  change--NOT NOISE)
• Better systems for data, knowledge and technology
  transfer
• States losing capacity to understand and utilize
  FIA data, so help us out
• Work with states on stimulus funding