Reference scenarios for evaluating wood pellet production in the Southeastern United States

Abstract

Wood pellet exports from the Southeastern United States (SE US) to Europe have been increasing in response to European Union member state policies to displace coal with renewable biomass for electricity generation. An understanding of the interactions among SE US forest markets, forest management, and forest ecosystem services is required to quantify the effects of pellet production compared to what would be expected under a reference case or ‘counterfactual scenario’ without pellet production. Inconsistent methods to define and justify the counterfactual scenario result in conflicting estimates and large uncertainties about the impacts of pellet production on SE US forests. Guidelines to support more consistent and transparent counterfactual scenarios are proposed. The guidelines include identifying major influences on current SE US forest conditions, developing potential futures that clearly document underlying assumptions and associated uncertainties, identifying the most likely alternative feedstock fates, and estimating the effects of no pellet demand on future forest conditions. The guidelines can help modelers to more accurately reflect the past and current forest dynamics and to consider the implications for SE US forest landscapes of future scenarios with and without pellet production. WIREs Energy Environ 2017, 6:e259. doi: 10.1002/wene.259 This article is categorized under: Bioenergy > Climate and Environment Energy and Climate > Climate and Environment Energy and Development > Climate and Environment

Framework for assessing land‐management effects on at‐risk species: Example ofSE USAwood pellet production and gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus)

“…Forest thinning is a silvicultural practice that reduces tree density to enhance forest health or support economic objectives, biodiversity conservation, or fuel treatments . Thinning operations include removal of mid-story hardwood trees and small diameter or defective stem wood of low quality that is F I G U R E 3 Timberland wood removals and woody feedstock types associated with SE USA wood pellet production for bioenergy (Abt et al, 2014;Parish et al, 2017). Nearly half of the pellets from the region supporting gopher tortoise populations are produced from second-hand mill residues that are not included in this diagram (Forisk, 2018) unsuitable for traditional forest products, such as lumber or pulpwood (Boukherroub, LeBel, & Lemieux, 2017).…”

“…Furthermore, approximately 80% of bioenergy wood pellets in the South region of the USA are produced from sawmill residues and other industrial forestry activites rather than timberland removals (EIA), and the production of bioenergy wood pellets from secondary mill residues does not directly impact forest habitat or species. Only about 3% of total SE USA timberland removals are being used for bioenergy pellet production (Parish, Dale, Kline, & Abt, 2017). Hence, it is important to identify specific forest management practices related to wood pellet production that should be included in the analysis framework.…”

Engaging stakeholders to assess landscape sustainability

“…For example, a renewable energy project may define a scenario of increased energy contributions from solar, wind, and/or biomass and compare the potential social, environmental, and economic conditions to those that might result from a reference scenario defined by current conditions extended across the same time frame. Deciding what management options are considered and compared under each scenario should relate to stakeholder concerns as well as what is possible (Parish et al 2017). Assumptions underlying scenarios should be documented and based on published sources, to the extent possible, to facilitate interpretation of results and replication of assessment parameters.…”

“…Time steps are annual, and temporal horizons are on the order of years to decades depending on the indicators selected. The context or reference system refers to conditions without bioenergy production, which are often typical agriculture or forestry practices (e.g., Parish et al 2017;Koponen et al 2018). (Table 1).…”

Environmental effects of short‐rotation woody crops for bioenergy: What is and isn't known

“…In addition to domestic consumption, the United States is also the world's largest global exporter of wood pellets (US Energy Information Administration, ). Policy‐driven European demand for this product has created a market for woody biomass in North America (Dale, Kline, et al, ; Dale, Parish, Kline, & Tobin, ; Parish, Dale, Kline, & Abt, ; Wang, Dwivedi, Abt, & Khanna, ). Nearly 60% of US wood products originate from managed forests in the southeast where climate, topography, and land ownership are favorable for wood production (Wear & Greis, ).…”