California recently released a draft version of its main climate plan, finding that it is preferable to open burn or leave to decay in the forest a significant portion of biomass residues resulting from wildfire prevention treatments. This is a missed opportunity: as a robust strategy to collect and convert forest waste into carbon-negative wood and energy products is a promising path to enable the state’s goal of treating one million acres per year and reduce the risk of high-severity wildfire. In this technical blog post, we analyze the role of forest biomass in the Draft 2022 Scoping Plan.

As part of our long-term policy design work, CSG has been exploring how California can achieve its ambitious forest health and GHG emissions reduction goals. In this blog post, we highlight findings to date from collaborations with UC Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and others, including promising strategies for aligning the state’s forest health and carbon neutrality goals.