Participants in the Field to Fuel project. (Photos by Phil Linden)
When the canola fields bloom yellow later this spring, members of the Colville Confederated Tribes will see green in the form of biodiesel fuel grown, pressed, produced and used on their reservation.
The “Field to Fuel” project is the result of a multi-year partnership among the CCT, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service at WSU, WSU Colville Reservation-Ferry County Extension, the Paschal Sherman Indian School and others, according to WSU Colville Reservation Extension educator Phil Linden.
“This project has brought together a wide array of partners,” Linden said. “WSU and USDA-ARS agronomists, WSU Extension, and local educators, graduate students, community developers and tribal leaders such as Tribal Energy Department Head Ernie Clark.
“They are all working with a common goal to create this new industry in our region. Farm-based biofuels are going to be based in rural communities, and creating a scalable working model for other communities to learn from will have far-reaching impacts.”
Former Tribal Council President Cherie Moomaw initiated the project nearly four years ago, Linden said. “She really got the ball rolling,” he said. “She could see that the tribe had a land mass that could be used for job creation. She had started a pellet mill and farmed herself, so she could see the connection between agriculture and industry.”
The CCT has more than 1.3 million acres on the reservation, with more than 100,000 acres of it identified as tillable, Linden said. The goal is to bring 20,000 acres into canola production to produce an annual fuel harvest of approximately 2 million gallons of biodiesel.
With the help of a $360,000 project (which Linden assisted in preparing) the CCT is receiving from the U.S. Department of Energy, the CCT Energy Department is purchasing additional biodiesel production equipment. The tribe also plans to construct a local bulk station on the reservation to enable the biodiesel produced to be blended into petroleum diesel.
The tribe produced enough biodiesel to fuel a school bus last fall. Linden said future possibilities are bright.
“Ideally, in the next five years, the tribe could be producing between 500,000 and 1 million gallons of biodiesel with vertical integration of those fuels into tribal vehicles,” he said. “There also will be enough for the local community to use.
“We’d see new farmers and more canola being grown across the reservation in all four districts. We’d also see high- and low-tech jobs throughout the ag sector through biodiesel processing and transport.”
And there’s another benefit in addition to the fuel produced and jobs created, Linden noted.
“Every acre of under-utilized farmland that goes into production is an acre out of the weed cycle,” he said. “Most of the acreage that this project is looking to use is currently acting as a weed reservoir.”
Canola fields.