Geographic area help

Biomass calculations can be run for different geographic areas. This tab lets you select the area for which your calculation will run.

You first select the type of area in which you are interested using the radio buttons, then select a specific location in the pick-list. You must pick a specific location from the pick-list.

If you select State, County, Stumpage Value Area, Timbershed, or WRIA, the total Market Biomass within that unit will be calculated. Competition takes place between facilities selected on the Facilities tab, with the biomass going to the facility that maximizes residual value.

If you select a facility, the total Market Biomass available to that facility will be calculated. Competition with other facilities is determined by the facilities selected on the Facilities tab.

Facilities help

Potential biomass supply is determined by analyzing the competition between facilities. Supply to a facility assumes land owners would sell their biomass to the facility that maximizes their residual value. If more than one facility has equal residual value to the landowner then a single facility is randomly chosen.

Existing facilities are those that are currently buying biomass (although not necessarily timber harvest residuals). Proposed facilities are those that have been suggested, evaluated, or are currently in the planning stages. Hypothetical facilities are those that were existing and then closed or were identified by the project team or through workshops held early in the project.

At least one facility must be selected for the analysis. If a single facility is selected then no competition is considered.

If a facility is selected on the Geography tab it will be greyed out below as it must be included in the analysis and cannot be unselected.

Costs and prices help

This tab lets you select the Harvest Cost model and the Price facilities pay for biomass.

There are three or four costs associated with harvesting, processing, loading and hauling biomass:

• Forest Health Costs: moving biomass from the treatment area to the roadside (forest health treatments only)
• Mobilization Costs: moving biomass collecting and loading equipment to the site
• Load/Unload Costs: grinding roadside biomass, loading it into a truck and unloading it at the facility
• Haul Costs: the drive time for the chip van from the site to the facility

Three cost models are available in the Calculator:

Prices for biomass can range from $27 to $100 per ton. Each Cost Model has a different minimum price. Biomass cannot be economically delivered to any facility when the price is below the minimum value for a cost model.

Biomass is only removed from the site if the price multiplied by the tons of Market Biomass is greater than the cost of getting that Market Biomass to a facility. The model takes into account the minimum tons a chip van would need to carry in order to break even on a trip to a facility, and will only take trips with loads above this threshold. The model will take as many trips as are needed to get all of the economically available biomass off site.

Summary options help

This tab lets you set the final calculator options.

Harvest levels were modeled for the years ranging from 2010 to 2030 in five year increments. You can choose the planning period in which you are interested from the Planning Period pick-list.

Truck haul times were calculated for all models in 10 minute increments out to four hours. By default the calculator uses the maximum four hour haul time. If you would like to restrict the amount of time trucks are allowed to travel, you may choose a shorter haul time from the Biomass Trucking Restrictions pick-list.

Your results table can be reported back in various combinations; for example the amount of biomass for a facility coming from each county. The Reporting Fields check boxes allow you to choose how your results are summarized.

Results help

This tab displays your results when you click the Run button.

The results table, depending on the options you selected, may include any of the following columns: CountyID, FacilityID, OwnerClass, SVAID, TimbershedID, or WRIANumber. These are the ID numbers for the Counties, Facilities, Owner Classes, Stumpage Value Areas, Timbersheds, and WRIAs respectively. The Download Lookup Tables link in the upper right corner of the tab will take you to a page where you can view and download tables for what these ID numbers mean.

If the No biomass is available using the current geographic, harvest and economic assumptions warning appears then the combination of harvest, geography, facilities, costs and prices does not produce any economically viable biomass. Most often this is associated with too high of a cost or too low of a price. However, if Spokane County were selected as the Geography and the facility in Hoquiam were chosen then no price evaluated would yield market biomass as both the cost and travel time are outside of the analysis maximums.