Environmental Report Will Address Proposed Pellet Mills

A project that proposes the development of two wood pellet facilities may hinge on a Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) that is scheduled for release on October 15.

Golden State Natural Resources (GSNR), a nonprofit public benefit corporation, established by rural counties in California to address the urgent issue of catastrophic fires from overgrown and under-managed forests, has proposed a forest resiliency demonstration project that would improve the resiliency of California’s forestlands from catastrophic wildfire by sustainably gathering and processing excess biomass into wood pellets for use in renewable energy generation.

The project would include the development of two wood pellet processing facilities, one in the foothills of the Central Sierra Nevada Mountain range, in Tuolumne County, and one in the Modoc Plateau of Northern California, in Lassen County. The finished pellets would then be transported by rail to the Port of Stockton for international shipping.

The project is currently in the environmental review process under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to ensure all potential impacts are identified, comprehensively evaluated, and mitigated to the fullest extent. A significant step in this process is the release of a publicly shared draft of the required Environmental Impact Report, which provides an opportunity for public review and comment on the adequacy of the report before its completion.