Louisiana Groups: Arbor Day is no Cause for Celebration in State

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Louisiana Groups:  Arbor Day is no Cause for Celebration in State

BATON ROUGE – A coalition of environmental organizations marked Arbor Day in Louisiana by calling attention to serious threats to the state’s forests from short-sighted policies and lack of responsible oversight. Specifically, the groups called attention to a number of port facilities under construction in Louisiana for production of wood pellets which are destined for foreign energy consumption.

BATON ROUGE – A coalition of environmental organizations marked Arbor Day in Louisiana by calling attention to serious threats to the state’s forests from short-sighted policies and lack of responsible oversight. Specifically, the groups called attention to a number of port facilities under construction in Louisiana for production of wood pellets which are destined for foreign energy consumption.

These facilities are part of a regional movement of using southern forests as resources for wood chip production to meet European Union (E.U.) energy demand. The facility at the Port of Baton Rouge is projected to produce and ship an estimated 340,000 tons of wood pellets per year.[i] The facility is projected to obtain wood from a 150 mile radius of Baton Rouge.[ii]

The groups compared the plans to the state’s attempt to promote conversion of cypress logs into landscape mulch for national retail sale, which prompted statewide protests.[iii] “We are concerned that this is another short-term vision for liquidating Louisiana’s forests,” said Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, Dean Wilson. “Like the cypress mulch idea, it takes a critical environmental and economic resource and turns it into a low-value commodity.”

The groups pointed out several key concerns:

  • There is NO environmental assessment of the impacts of this activity on forests, watersheds, and coastal reconstruction;
  • There is NO assessment of the economic impacts on value-added Louisiana forest products as large swaths of standing trees are clear cut and converted to wood pellets;
  • There is a lack of real benefits for the supposed justification of the E.U. policy – carbon emission reduction.

“The E.U.’s policy is flawed in every direction,” said Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper, Paul Orr. “Exploiting other region’s ecosystems for ‘green’ energy to burn is not environmentally responsible. Combusting mature standing trees that hold carbon and help store it in the soil is also short-sighted from the standpoint of climate change mitigation.”[iv]

The groups noted that as with cypress mulch production, proponents often claim that only wood waste or low-value trees will be utilized, but utilizing every available tree is necessary to meet production and export targets. In Louisiana, large older trees are considered less valuable for pulpwood and particle board production. Industry publications are clear that whole trees will be processed to produce pellets, along with wood residue.[v]

“This is part of a regional trend,” said Woody Martin, Sierra Club Delta Chapter Chair. “But the lack of effective oversight in Louisiana, and in particular the failure to carry out any environmental assessment of this policy, puts our forests at particular risk.”

Notes:

[i] “Pellet and Port Project News,” April 12, 2013 (http://www.forest2market.com/blog/pellet-and-port-project-news)
[ii] “Pellet plant lease advances,” The Advocate, April 16, 2010 (www.2theadvocate.com/news/91003474.html?showAll=y&C=7)
[iii] “State’s cypress trees are threatened, which threatens flood protection,” Louisiana Weekly, July 30, 2012, (http://www.louisianaweekly.com/state’s-cypress-trees-are-threatened-which-threatens-flood-protection/)
[iv] “Old forests capture plenty of carbon,” Nature, September 2008, (http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080910/full/news.2008.1092.html)
[v] Biomass Secure Power (www.biomasssecurepower.ca/Company/company.html)

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