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The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) seeks to maintain and enhance the wood products infrastructure of California to promote healthy resilient forests through its Wood Products and Bioenergy Business and Workforce Development (BWD) Grant. Maximum award amounts and match requirements vary by project type (see Funding Limits and Match below). Applications are due April 25, 2025.

What is the purpose of the Business and Workforce Development Grant program?

Wood Products awards funding for California business and workforce development projects that support healthy resilient forests and the people and ecosystems that depend on them. Wood Products has four primary areas of responsibility, including existing and emerging technologies:

1. Business Development, including solid wood and biomass processing and manufacturing, in-woods operations, and tree nurseries.
2. Bioenergy Business and Workforce Development, including forest bio-material power generation and biofuels for domestic use and export.
3. Forest-related Workforce Development, including in-woods, transportation, and manufacturing.
4. Research and Development, which must be ancillary to forest-related business and workforce development.

What applicants are eligible to apply?

Business development proposals submitted by an organization whose operations have the potential to support forest restoration and/or wood products infrastructure in California will be considered. Eligible business development project applicants include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Academic institutions;
2. Local agencies, including counties, cities, and special districts;
3. State agencies;
4. Federal agencies;
5. Native American tribes;
6. Non-profit organizations;
7. Private entities including businesses, foundations or others not listed above.

Furthermore, business development project applicants should be involved in at least one of the following business endeavors:

1. Primary wood processing for wholesale and retail markets;
2. Tree nursery capacity/facilities improvement;
3. Chip processing;
4. Forest operations, forestry, or other forest-industry support services;
5. Bioenergy facility development or enhancement (e.g., fuels, gasification, pyrolysis, thermal, power, and/or advanced energy production) that uses forest biomass as feedstock;
6. Forest biomass transportation, feedstock sorting, and/or aggregation from various sources.

Workforce Development applicants seeking to provide training opportunities that will increase California’s workforce capacity in the fields of forestry, forest operations, forest-sector transportation, forest-sector manufacturing, or other forest-sector support services are eligible to apply for workforce development funding. Qualifying workforce development projects generally include the ability to provide recurring training opportunities to unique cohorts of individuals and may include the award of institutionally recognized training certificates. Eligible workforce development project applicants include:

1. Academic institutions;
2. Local agencies, including counties, cities, and special districts;
3. State agencies;
4. Federal agencies;
5. Native American tribes;
6. Non-profit organizations;
7. Private training businesses and foundations.

What eligible activities will the grant fund?

This grant program supports increasing the pace and scale of forest fuels management by expanding capacities of businesses that work in removing and utilizing forest fuels, fire reintroduction, and reforestation of forests degraded by overcrowding, drought, pest infestation, and catastrophic fire. Grant projects should, either directly or indirectly, facilitate greenhouse gas emission reductions and further the purposes of AB 32 and related statutes, or contribute to other goals.

The following are examples of activities eligible for funding:

1. Manufacture solid wood products from forest materials, such as post and poles, dimensional lumber, plywood, or other products that allow for continued carbon storage.
2. Develop new tree nurseries and increase capacity at existing tree nurseries, with grantees committing to producing native, seed-zone-specific seedlings for private and public forestland owners for the purpose of reforestation of native trees. Growing some native, non-woody plants may be eligible.
3. Develop and expand workforce and operations businesses in forest operations, prescribed fire, right-of-way clearing, forestry, and other forest-industry support services.
4. Utilize forest biomass to generate energy or fuel through combustion, gasification or other energy producing technologies, which supports wildfire risk reduction and displaces carbon-intensive fossil fuel-based energy.
5. Subsidize transportation of forest biomass from the woods to processing facilities, supporting hazardous fuels reduction, reforestation, and wood utilization. 
6. Market or utilize forest products for beneficial uses. Beneficial uses include, but are not limited to, firewood, dimensional lumber, animal bedding, biochar, artistic and cultural products, cross-laminated timber, mulch, oriented strand board, pulp, post, shredding, and veneer products.
7. Permit new and/or expanding forest-sector businesses.
8. Provide a training opportunity or program in a related field that aims to increase the forest-sector workforce capacity in an eligible workforce development grant. Qualifying workforce development projects generally include the ability to provide recurring training opportunities to unique cohorts of individuals and may include the award of institutionally recognized training certificates.   
9. Hiring and training workers for a forestry-sector business may be eligible for a business development grant but not a workforce development grant.
10. Research and development activities that support workforce development and wood products infrastructure development in California.

Are there any preferences or priorities for applicants to consider?

Preferred Projects are projects that the Wood Products Team has identified as currently strategic in advancing the forest sector. Proposals incorporating preferred projects may receive additional consideration. These include:

1. Establishment and/or expansion of wood utilization or operations infrastructure in regions of California where capacity is currently lacking (e.g., Southern California, Central Coast, Southern Sierras, Eastside Sierras).
2. Businesses with sustained intake of 20+ bone dry tons per day of wildfire-burned material within 3 months of executing grant agreements.
3. Businesses that provide in-woods fuels reduction operations and/or associated workforce training.
4. Trucking operations and/or associated workforce training. 
5. Wood-processing facilities operations and/or associated workforce training.

What are the funding limits and match requirements?

Business Development grants up to $500,000 require a $1:$1 match to grant request. Award requests over $500,000 and up to the maximum grant amount of $2,000,000 require $2 in match for every $1 in grant funding.

Workforce Development grants of up to $500,000 have no match requirement. Grants over $500,000 up to the maximum of $5,000,000 require $1 in match for every $9 in grant request over $500,000.

Business Research and Development grants may not exceed $500,000 and have no match requirement.

What is the solicitation timeline?

Applications must be received before midnight on April 25, 2025. Proposal will be reviewed in May-June 2025, and grant award offers are anticipated in July 2025.

The Grant Guidelines can be found here.

For more information on this grant or how to apply with Morrison’s assistance, please contact the Morrison Grants Team by email at grants@morrisonco.net or call us at 530-893-4764.