Iron Range Resources and Blandin Foundation are collaborating on a special conference to engage business and industry leaders, economic development specialists, policy makers and investors in exploring opportunities to maximize the potential that Minnesota forests can play in the new bioeconomy.
The conference “Seizing Opportunity: Forest and the BioEconomy” will be held Thursday and Friday at Ruttger’s Sugar Lake Lodge in Grand Rapids.
“Minnesota’s northern forest lands are well positioned to contribute and benefit from the emerging bioeconomy,” says Blandin Foundation president Jim Hoolihan. “The time is right. In fact, the time is right now.”
In a bioeconomy, people rely more on renewable biomass resources, such as grasses and trees, than upon the finite supplies of non-renewable petroleum to make the chemicals, heat, power and fuels used in the manufacture of industrial and consumer products.
In Minnesota most of the focus has been on agricultural crops such as corn or soybeans. The conference will introduce economic planners, business people and investors to the concept of forest-derived biomass —its bioeconomic opportunities as well as its challenges.
Blandin Foundation and Iron Range Resources expect the forest products industry to join the agricultural products industry at the state’s bioeconomy planning table.
“Sustained efforts in our communities can create conditions necessary for Minnesota’s forest products industry to reposition itself as both a producer and processor of biomass, as a manufacturer of diverse and environmentally sustainable products from renewable resources, and as a provider of green energy,” says Bernadine Joselyn, director of public policy and engagement for the Blandin Foundation. “We have many things going for us but there is absolutely no time to waste.”
Long-term and short-term financing of a new start-up industry will be addressed. Like any industry at the cusp of major change, the forest derived biomass industry will require sizable capital investments for (1) technologies that will help manage U.S. forest land for both sustainability and quality; (2) technologies to extract the appropriate chemical and liquid fuels products and (3) gasification technologies to convert biomass into synthetic gas, called syngas.
Another important issue conference participants will tackle is how best to take advantage of incentives in the “Next Generation Act of 2007” which, among other things, was designed to foster biomass-related business opportunities and investments.
Iron Range Resources Commissioner Sandy Layman says that this conference is also designed to specifically advance key recommendations from the Governor’s Advisory Task Force on the Competitiveness of Minnesota’s Primary Forest Product Industry which was presented to the Governor in July.
Blandin Foundation’s Hoolihan says that the conference furthers the goals of the foundation’s four-year-old Vital Forests /Vital Communities Initiative.
For more than six decades, Iron Range Resources has been synonymous with economic development and diversification in northeastern Minnesota. The agency has provided organizational and fiscal leadership as the region has weathered the fortunes of the cyclical forestry and mining industries. This leadership has taken several forms - strengthening core industries, investing in projects to diversify the region’s economy, and partnering with regional stakeholders on strategic economic development initiatives.
Blandin Foundation, Minnesota’s largest rural-based private foundation is located in Grand Rapids. Its mission is to strengthen rural Minnesota’s communities through grants, leadership development programs and public policy initiatives. The Foundation helps communities provide choice and opportunity for all, especially people facing social and economic challenges. For additional information please contact: Deborah Gelbach 651-646-0012 or deborah@gelbach.com