Assessing Forest Clearing Rates Near Pellet Mills in Southeastern US Forestlands

Wood pellets are increasingly used in many European countries as a renewable fuel source for power stations. Pellet mills in the southeastern United States are supplying much of this cross-Atlantic demand. While the pellet industry claims they are using low-grade trees and wood waste products as inputs to pellet production, environmentalists claim they are using whole hardwood trees resulting in loss of valuable wildlife habitat. This project will compute and test whether current forest clearing rates and temporal trends are significantly different between mill regions and non-mill reference areas. The primary goal of the project is to determine whether the wood pellet industry has altered forest clearing rates in North Carolina and Virginia.