MSU Studies Biochar From Storm-Damaged Michigan Timber

A $300,000 USDA grant will fund research into turning ice-storm-damaged northern Michigan wood into charcoal-like biochar.

Updated on Nov. 3, 2026 in Environmental

MSU Studies Biochar From Storm-Damaged Michigan Timber

Live Poll

Should Michigan spend public money turning storm-damaged timber into biochar?

Michigan State University received a $300,000 grant from the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture to study repurposing storm-damaged wood into biochar. The project responds to timber damaged by March 2025 ice storms that exceeds what traditional wood markets can absorb.

Why it matters

Severe ice storms in March 2025 prompted emergency declarations in several counties and left surplus damaged timber that saturated the forest products sector's usual outlets. Biochar offers a possible use for wood that cannot go into traditional products, though there is little U.S. market for it today.

The $300,000 award is a USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture grant, and the source does not give the volume of storm-damaged timber or a baseline for comparison. The amount of damaged wood and the commercial viability of biochar production remain unquantified.

The players

Michigan State University

A public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, conducting the biochar project.

USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture

The federal agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture that funds agricultural and food science research.

The details

The project will heat wood unsuitable for traditional products to produce biochar, a charcoal-like material that can enrich soil and store carbon. Michigan State University will deliver workshops, demonstrations, logger trainings, economic impact assessments, and biochar testing, along with content on how to make biochar and its end uses and markets.

March 2025: Severe ice storms struck northern Michigan, damaging forests.
November 3, 2026: The MSU biochar project grant was announced.

Historical Context

Biochar traces back to Indigenous communities in the Amazon basin, who enriched soils with charcoal-based material. The Michigan project revives that approach for storm-damaged timber, even as the United States has little market for biochar today.

Northern Michigan landowners and loggers dealing with storm-damaged timber may gain access to MSU workshops, demonstrations, and logger trainings. The project's economic impact assessments could also inform how damaged wood is handled locally.

The takeaway

Storm-damaged wood that falls outside traditional markets may find new value through conversion into biochar, a material with soil and carbon-storage applications. Whether that value materializes in Michigan will depend on demand the U.S. market does not yet show.