Five companies will share grants totaling $3.7 million to set up collection points for forestry waste around the country. The awards, which come in just under the $4 million mark, will pay for sites where leftover branches and other wood debris can be gathered. Material like this would otherwise rot in the woods or get torched in slash piles, wasting timber that could be converted into fuel. Collection points aim at the weakest link in the biofuel chain, the cost of hauling scattered debris out of remote terrain. Backers of the program say it thins out the debris that feeds wildfires while giving pellet and fuel producers a steadier stream of raw material. Rural areas stand to pick up hauling and processing work that has thinned out as local mills have closed. The grants cover the setup phase only, so the sites will need to earn their keep once public money stops flowing. Five points across an entire country is a modest network, and the results will help decide whether larger funding rounds follow.