Company logo. | Plumas Wood Fiber
Plumas Wood Fiber, a California-based start-up company with the goal of producing wood fiber substrate from western forest biomass, has been awarded finalist status in the Conservation X Labs Fire Grand Challenge.
The Conservation X Labs Program (CXL) conducts sustainability grant programs with the goal of preventing the next mass extinction. One of these programs is the Fire Grand Challenge, where 12 finalists are chosen to demonstrate innovative ways to deal with wildfire in Western North American Forests.
Plumas Wood Fiber, in conjunction with Earthworm Soil Factory, was chosen as one of the 12 finalists for the Fire Grand Challenge. The Challenge awards $50k to each of the finalists to conduct a pilot project to demonstrate the validity and utility of the wildfire innovation they have developed, with the goal of scaling the project to commercial development for useful deployment to help deal with the problem. Grand prizes will be awarded to three of the finalists in January 2026.
Plumas Wood Fiber is a project to process excess forest biomass from western forests into a potting product for the horticultural industry as a substitute for peat moss. With the CXL Fire Grand Challenge finalist award, Plumas Wood Fiber will partner with Earthworm Soil Factory to produce samples of wood fiber potting substrate from excess forest biomass to send out to various stakeholders in horticulture to conduct growth trials. These growth trials will validate the use of western wood species as a useful ingredient in commercial-scale horticulture, for filling those thousands of pots in nurseries for producing food crops and ornamental plants.
Calls for Growth Trials with Wood Fiber Substrate this Summer
Plumas Wood Fiber is calling for horticultural stakeholders to conduct growth trials with a new potting substrate idea — wood fiber potting substrate made from western forest biomass.
What?
Plumas Wood Fiber has received a grant from the Conservation X Labs Program to produce samples of substrate for use in growth trials to validate the material for wholesale commercial use. Plumas will produce wood fiber substrate from Ponderosa Pine wood chips in Spring 2025, using a hammer mill to process chips into substrate. The material will be offered free of charge to horticultural stakeholders who promise to use the material for growth trials in Summer 2025 and report back to Plumas with publishable results in November 2025.
Who?
Plumas Wood Fiber, in conjunction with Earthworm Soil Factory, will process the material at the Butte Valley facility and ship it to willing horticultural partners for growth trials. Pluma is now seeking horticultural partners for the trials — nurseries, greenhouses, researchers, potting mix manufacturers — those that know the potting substrates market and the need for more high-quality substrates as horticulture expands.
Why?
Horticulture imports a great deal of its potting substrate material from Canada and overseas — but there is an overabundance of biomass from forest management projects in California — so it makes sense to use a locally sourced material. However, tests of the material are needed to ensure it works. Plumas Wood Fiber partnered with Dr. Brian Jackson of North Carolina State University to do analytic testing of western wood species for the purpose, and those analytic results are positive. Now it’s time for boots-on-the-ground growth trials by western horticultural stakeholders to validate the materials. Successful growth trials will lead to Plumas developing a large-scale industrial facility to produce the material by truckload for use in wholesale commercial horticulture. The goal is to serve the needs of horticulture and to help with the need to remove excess forest biomass from western forests for fire safety.
When?
The material will be produced in Spring 2025, aged appropriately according to Dr. Jackson’s instructions, and then delivered at no cost for the material by truck to California (and possibly Oregon) horticulture partners in early Summer 2025 for trials.
What Kind of Trials?
Plumas Wood Fiber leaves it up to each horticultural partner to decide what kind of trials they would like to do with the material, in what sort of mixtures, and with what sort of plants. Plumas only asks that a control be used simultaneously to compare mixes with wood fiber against mixes without.
What’s the Catch?
- If possible, Plumas Wood Fiber asks for help with the shipping cost of the material to your facility. Plumas will arrange the shipping, and there is no cost for the material itself.
- Publishable results of your trials should be provided by the first week of November 2025. Or, at least, preliminary results at that time.
How Can I Participate?
Contact Jeff Greef at Plumas Wood Fiber to get in line to receive a shipment of wood fiber substrate made from western Ponderosa Pine.