Northstar Wood Energy Facility Gets $250,000 Boost From Tahoe Fund & Vail Resorts EpicPromise

The Tahoe Fund and Vail Resorts today announced a contribution of $200,000 in support of the new Northstar Community Services District (NCSD) Wood Energy Facility. This grant is made possible by Vail Resorts’ guest donation program, which supports the Tahoe Fund. The Tahoe Fund is also contributing $50,000 from its Smartest Forest Fund to the facility, which will convert hazardous fuels from local forests into heat for the Village at Northstar.

Through Vail Resorts’ EpicPromise program and the Tahoe Fund’s $1 for Tahoe program, guests of Northstar, Kirkwood and Heavenly can add one dollar to their lift tickets, season passes, golf rounds, accommodations and more. Over the years, those dollars have made a significant impact on Tahoe’s environment.

The Tahoe Fund is a nonprofit founded in 2010 to support environmental improvement projects that restore lake clarity, enhance sustainable recreation, promote healthier forests, improve transportation, and inspire greater stewardship of the region. Through the generous support of its donors, the Tahoe Fund has leveraged more than $20 million in private funds to secure more than $80 million in public funds for more than 130 environmental projects.

“We are immensely grateful for the generosity of our guests who give back every time they ski or ride at our resorts here in the Lake Tahoe region,” said Amy Ohran, Vice President and General Manager of Northstar California Resort. “We are truly honored to make a contribution of this magnitude in service of a project that will help support forest health and protect our community from wildfire – and it’s made possible by our guests who have a love and passion for these beautiful mountains.”

The Tahoe Fund supports innovative projects that increase the pace and scale of forest restoration through its Smartest Forest Fund. NCSD’s new facility will advance those goals by creating a badly needed offtake solution for hazardous fuels. In doing so, it will help land managers meet treatment targets, reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire, and improve forest health in the region.

This 6,000-square-foot facility will offer a local solution for excess woody material – such as underbrush, shrubs and dead trees – from overcrowded forests in the Tahoe-Truckee region. This material is normally piled and burned on the forest floor or trucked long distances to be processed outside of the region, producing greenhouse gasses that pollute the environment.

With the new facility, NCSD will be able to process this material locally, cutting emissions and costs associated with using natural gas. In fact, the process will produce heat for 14 buildings in the Northstar community, meeting about 99% of the average thermal demand for those facilities and replacing approximately $700,000 in natural gas costs annually.

“The Tahoe Fund believes that NCSD's new system will change the game for our forests,” explained Tahoe Fund board member John Jones. “Using state-of-the-art technology, NCSD will be putting wood waste to good use right here at home, while also making our forests healthier. We are so grateful to Vail Resorts and their guests for their tremendous support.”

Learn more about this project and others at tahoefund.org.