Scientists and foresters who understand the market economics behind forestry know that industries like renewable biomass energy – which provide landowners incentives to grow more trees – are critical for maintaining growing forests across the US. When those incentives are lost, the health of US forests are threatened. Forests become parking lots, Wal Marts or land for agriculture.
Unfortunately, according to the latest report from New Hampshire Public Radio, that is on the verge of happening in New Hampshire as a direct consequence of the state’s small biomass power plants shutting down.
After a loss of state subsidies, biomass plants across New Hampshire are closing, and that’s “left the forest products sector with few in-state markets for a lot of low-grade timber.” It also means thousands of lost jobs up and down the forest products supply chain.
Maintaining healthy markets for low-grade timber is of vital importance for the forest products economy, since this kind of junk wood “makes up about two-thirds of the volume harvested, and contributes about 10 percent of the revenue.” This low-grade, often unusable wood has been used as biomass to produce renewable energy – but without the biomass plants, landowners will lose an income stream that is “vital to keeping forests profitable and intact.”
The impact of this? Forests will likely be converted toward other, potentially environmentally-dangerous uses.
As Tom Thomson, a tree farmer, told New Hampshire Public Radio, “The landowners need the markets. If they don’t have the markets, they’re not going to hold onto their land.”
“Instead, he says, landowners could sell for other uses, like housing developments or cell towers,” reported New Hampshire Public Radio. “This could leave the state with smaller, more fragmented forests — more vulnerable to further development.”
This echoes the findings of a recent report from researchers at the University of Georgia and the US Forest Service, who found that nationwide, the absence of demand for wood biomass could actually result in deforestation up to 15,000 square kilometers (5,791 square miles), roughly the size of the entire state of Connecticut. Conversely, increased demand for wood pellets retains thousands more square kilometers in natural timberland area, the report found.
The loss of biomass plants in New Hampshire underscores just how pivotal the industry is to maintaining – and growing – forests held in private lands. That’s why the United Nations as well as over 100 leading university scientists support renewable biomass energy as a key component of the global strategy to mitigate climate change. More forests mean more carbon sequestration, and more biomass means fewer fossil fuels. That’s exactly what we need as climate change continues to worsen.
Tags: Biomass, New Hampshire