Nov. 30 summit to discuss feasibility of forest products campus

information released

A broad range of people interested in decreasing wildfire risk, improving forest health and building the local economy will gather on Nov. 30 to talk about a potential forest products campus in Chelan County.

At the Chelan County Forest Products Campus Summit, stakeholders will learn the results of a feasibility study completed recently by consultants with Chelan County Natural Resources. The summit is being held at Wenatchee Valley College’s Mish ee twie building, at the Jack and Edna Maguire Conference Center. The public is invited to attend.

The summit will be 9:00 a.m. to noon, with a strategic planning session following at 1:00 p.m. to discuss next steps.

If you are unable to attend in person, you are invited to listen in via Zoom:

Among those topics to be discussed include the current forest health in the region, an assessment of the regional wood supply, an economic analysis of forest products available, suite suitability, and business and infrastructure opportunities.

“Chelan County is the highest risk community in the state for potential wildfire damage,” said Mike Kaputa, director of Natural Resources. “Reducing that risk is costly. A locally located forest products campus would make forest health treatments more economical while building on our local economy.”

For about two years, Chelan County has been exploring the building of a forest products campus that will harvest timber from overburdened Central Washington forests and produce lumber products for market, in turn improving forest health and preventing wildfires.

Natural Resources received a grant from the U.S. Forest Service to determine the feasibility of building such a project. A team of consultants will develop a comprehensive design for an engineered sawmill, biomass and mass timber facility that would process small dimension logs thinned from the forest.