Soil & Water Implications of Woody Biomass Harvesting

Harnessing the Power of Local Wood Energy is a community resource guide, written by Caitlin Cusack, that weaves technical information with the personal stories of community members who want to heat their local school with sustainably produced woodchips. It details how a rural community can take advantage of the cost savings of wood energy while assuring the wood is sourced and utilized in a "Sustainable, Efficient, Local, and Fair (SELF)" manner.

As the United States and other nations commit to the path of biofuels production, a group of scientists is calling for sustainable practices in an industry that will, as MBL scientist Jerry Mellilo says, "reshape the Earth's landscape in a significant way."

A stand's nutritional characteristics are important in constructing a picture of the current and future site productivity potential.  Nutrient reserves in the mineral soil and forest floor are often sufficient in many boreal stands to allow for good early growth of one generation. Nutrient reserves are considerably less in sites with shallow, coarse soils compared to sites with deep mineral soils.