USDA Forest Service Opens Three Grants Totaling $34 Million to Support the Forest Product Economy
Applications for the three grant programs are due in December 2024.
Announcement Type: Grants Notice
Opportunit(ies):
Wood Utilization Assistance
2025 Community Wood Energy and Wood Innovation Program
2025 Wood Products Infrastructure Assistance Program
Overview and Eligible Uses:
The agency seeks proposals to drive innovation, create new markets for sustainable wood products and renewable wood energy, and expand processing capacity.
The funding, enabled by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, is available through the Forest Service’s three key grant programs: Wood Innovations Grant, Community Wood Grant, and Wood Products Infrastructure Assistance Grant Programs, all aimed at supporting the forest products economy.
The Wood Innovation Grants Program, launched in 2015, stimulates, expands, and supports U.S. wood products and wood energy markets to promote long-term management of National Forest System and other forest lands. National focus areas include mass timber, renewable wood energy, and technological development that supports hazardous fuel reduction and sustainable forest management.
The Community Wood Grant Program, launched in 2020, provides funding for installing thermally led community wood energy systems or building innovative wood product manufacturing facilities. The Forest Service expects renewable wood energy systems funded by this program to use the most stringent control technologies. The program emphasizes assisting sawmills in economically challenged areas to retool or add advanced technology.
The Wood Products Infrastructure Assistance provides funding to support facilities that purchase and process byproducts from ecosystem restoration projects. This includes establishing, reopening, retrofitting, expanding, or improving sawmills or other wood-processing facilities near federal or Indian lands needing ecosystem restoration and generating byproducts. The focus is on areas affected by unnaturally severe fires, insect infestations, or disease, with high or very high priority for ecological restoration.
Amount:
Wood Utilization Assistance: $8,000,000 total program funding.
2025 Community Wood Energy and Wood Innovation Program: $6,000,000. The award ceiling is $1,000,000, the award floor is $10,000.
2025 Wood Products Infrastructure Assistance Program: $20,000,000. The award ceiling is $1,000,000, the award floor is $50,000.
Award Type: Grants
Eligible Applicants:
For-profit entities
State and local governments
Indian Tribes
School districts
Communities
Not-for-profit organizations
Institutions of higher education
Special purpose districts (e.g., public utilities districts, fire districts, conservation districts, and ports)
Key Dates:
Wood Innovations Grant Program: 5:00 pm local time on December 11, 2024
Community Wood Grant Program: 5:00 pm local time on December 18, 2024
Wood Products Infrastructure Assistance (WPIA) Grant Program: 5:00PM local time on December 18, 2024
Key Links:
Wood Innovations Program Overview
Wood Innovations Grant - Grant.gov Opportunity
Community Wood Grant Program - Grant.gov Opportunity
Wood Products Infrastructure Assistance Grant Program - Grant.gov Opportunity
For a full list of currently available grant programs under the Infrastructure Law and other helpful tools, take a look at our Helpful Resources page.
This tracker will continue to send updates when new funding opportunities are announced.