Calaveras CHIPS Final 4/21/06

The Calaveras Healthy Impact Product Solutions (CHIPS) project was conceived as a way to extract brush, small trees, and other forest overgrowth in the lower reaches of the Sierra Nevada in Calaveras County, California, while providing some jobs and income to residents of the project area. The project is intended to address two problems in the area: forest overgrowth that creates a fire hazard in the region and economic depression in the region’s communities. The Center for Economic Development (CED) at California State University, Chico was contracted to conduct a market feasibility of producing five products from forest overgrowth: wood chips for landscaping, wood pellets for wood-burning fireplaces and stoves, fence posts, electricity, and biodiesel fuel…read complete report here