Abstract:
International demand for wood-based
biomass for bioenergy production is growing,
and private forestlands in the southeastern United States have the potential to supply
that demand. The southeastern United States (Southeast) is the world's largest exporter
of wood pellets for bioenergy, primarily to the United Kingdom (UK) and the
European Union (EU). However, wood-based
biomass production accounts for only
a small share of total wood removals from private forestlands in the Southeast. There
is sufficient wood-based
biomass in the Southeast to support greater production of
wood pellets for domestic and international markets without redirecting timber from
sawtimber and pulpwood production. In 2018–19,
we conducted 39 semi-structured
interviews with private forest landowners, foresters, loggers, and biomass production
facility managers in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia to obtain their views on wood-based
biomass production in the Southeast. Although landowners were interested in
supplying wood for biomass as a byproduct of timber harvesting, they seldom participated
in wood-based
biomass production because of limited and unreliable access to
biomass markets. Loggers and production facility managers had not invested in biomass
production because they remain skeptical about the financial viability of wood-based
biomass. Continued obstacles to biomass production include: price competition
with fossil fuels and conventional wood products; inconsistent domestic government
support for biomass production; concerns about meeting the sustainability requirements
to export wood-based
biomass to the UK and EU; and the high costs associated
with harvesting low-grade
wood for biomass. The barriers to biomass expansion in
the southeastern United States remain primarily economic and political rather than biophysical.
