By: Brad Owen, Lieutenant Governor, State of Washington
Special to The Tacoma News Tribune

One of my first jobs out of high school was as a choker setter in a logging operation, attaching wire rope around loose logs so they could be yarded into a stack and hauled away. It was dangerous work, and I did it just long enough to know that I didn’t want to be a logger.

After we set the chokers they’d haul away the big stuff and pile up the limbs, roots and other debris to either leave it standing or burn. In fact, whenever you walk through the forest, you will see heaps of woody debris everywhere. Additionally, any operation involving wood, such as a saw mill or door plant, yields tons of sawdust and chips as a byproduct.

Back in my day we called all that waste. Today we call it biomass, and are finding safe, clean ways to turn it into fuel for our cars or power for our homes and businesses.

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