Timber Production Expansion Guaranteed Loans

The TPEP will provide financial assistance through loan guarantees to lenders providing loans to entities seeking to establish, reopen, expand, or improve a sawmill or other wood processing facilities, and to forest workers, including loggers and other jobs that supply materials to these sawmills and facilities, that are using ecological restoration byproducts from an identified unit of USFS National Forest System lands. These units of USFS National Forest System lands must be classified as being a high or very high priority for ecological restoration involving vegetation removal, due to the risk of unnaturally severe wildfires, or insect or disease infestation. Under TPEP facilities will purchase and process the byproducts from ecosystem restoration projects, typically small- and mid-diameter timber.

To be eligible for a loan guarantee under TPEP, a lender must meet the eligibility requirements in 7 CFR 5001.130. The borrower must meet the requirements specified in 7 CFR 5001.126(a) and (d) at the time of each guaranteed loan’s approval and through issuance of the loan note guarantee. In addition, the borrower must be:
(a) An entity engaged in or proposing to engage in establishing, reopening, retrofitting, expanding, or improving a sawmill or other wood-processing facility. For purposes of this opportunity, an eligible borrower entity may include a forest worker, logger, heavy equipment operator, material handler, or other professional entity responsible for purchasing and processing ecosystem restoration byproducts.
(b) Eligible borrowers must use ecosystem restoration byproducts from federal or Tribal lands that USFS identified as high or very high priority for ecological restoration involving vegetation removal and must procure a significant amount of raw materials from federal or Tribal lands. High priority designated lands can be found using the TPEP Priority Areas dashboard at the following link: www.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/5d6d9d9922a8486f83d51d40835f1870.

Applications are funded on a first-come first served basis according to priority points procedures outlined in RD Instruction 4279-B, section 4279.155.

Applications typically take 60 days to approve.