Alaska Airlines Teams with Native American Tribes on Producing Aviation Biofuel

The aviation biofuel was derived from twigs and small branches. These forest residuals were provided by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe via the Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance Tribal Partnership Program (NARA TPP). CSKT and Muckleshoot are among many groups of Native American forest landowners in the Pacific Northwest.

Native Americans are physically and spiritually tied to the lands and have a holistic land management approach that serves both the present and future. A major driver of tribal participation in TPP has been the opportunity to convert forest residuals into a useful product that would not further contribute to smoke and pollution.

TPP also engages students from tribal colleges in bioenergy research, providing them with relevant land management skills that they can apply on their home reservations.