Ponderosa is Graphyte’s first project built around Western wildfire risk. It sits near Flagstaff, in the middle of the Four Forests Restoration Initiative. More than two million acres of ponderosa pine and piñon-juniper that the U.S. Forest Service and the State of Arizona are actively thinning to reduce the threat of catastrophic fire. That work leaves behind enormous volumes of woody residue. Graphyte turns this residue into durable carbon removal. The project is in development, applying the same Carbon Casting process now proven at our Loblolly facility in Arkansas and due to launch in Q1 2027
How it works here
For a century, fire suppression left these forests overgrown, and the region now carries an extreme wildfire risk. Thinning them is an ecological necessity, but it generates far more material than anyone can use such as small trees, tops and limbs that are normally stacked into slash piles and burned on site, releasing their carbon straight back into the air in addition to degrading the air quality.
Forest residuals from restoration and fuel-reduction work, together with mill residuals from local sawmills, are processed to ensure it is dry and inert, we compress it into pellets and then seal the compressed biomass to ensure the biomass never decomposes, and store them underground. The carbon will remain inert for 1000’s of years, and we measure what is stored directly using our proprietary MRV system rather than estimating it.
The biomass supply is soured locally in the greater Flagstaff area, anchored by a multi-year agreement with Restoration Forest Products, Arizona’s largest sawmill, and supported by partnerships with The Nature Conservancy and the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management.
Storage
Carbon will be stored at the Gray Mountain site on Babbitt Ranches land, a working aggregate quarry that has already been excavated. Reusing a mined-out quarry means no new ground is disturbed and the site is already zoned for inert-material storage. The first phase holds roughly 300,000 tonnes of CO₂ over about five years, and the site can expand in stages to around three million tonnes across its operating life. Graphyte filed its initial storage permit application, an Aquifer Protection Permit, with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality in December 2025.
Where it stands
The Ponderosa project follows on te heels of our Loblolly project which has been operation since 2024. The project has secured its anchor biomass supply, an option on a processing site in the Bellemont industrial park next to that supplier, and a long-term lease on the storage site, and it is now working through permitting with state and county regulators. Once operating, it is designed to remove roughly 60,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year, with credits issued and verified through the Isometric registry, the same protocol used at Loblolly.
In the community
Ponderosa’s biggest co-benefit is the reason the forest work is happening at all: reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire to the communities, watersheds, and habitat around Flagstaff. By removing material that would otherwise be burned, the project supports the pace of thinning that keeps these forests healthier and safer. It also brings a new industry and jobs to northern Arizona, and it has drawn broad backing from the Forest Service and state foresters to Coconino County, the City of Flagstaff, local conservation and biomass groups, with ongoing engagement with the Navajo Nation.