Biomass Harvesting and Its Silvicultural Implications

There are three major classes of residue biomass harvesting that managers can adopt and each has silvicultural implications. Harvesting timber residues following logging operations is frequently a possibility (Richardson and others 2002). This can impact silvicultural practices and costs associated with stand regeneration and subsequent stand development, as well as provide other benefits such as reducing fire risk. A second class is the harvest of small diameter trees, that would not otherwise be useable to the traditional forest industry, and which may be used to modify and improve the management of existing stands. The third class, the utilization of low-value species, is most applicable to large areas of degraded forest to improve species composition and stand quality.

For more detail on the silvicultural implications of these three classes of operations see:

• Timber Harvest Residues: Silvicultural Implications 
• Small Diameter Woody Biomass Utilization: Silvicultural Implications
• Low-Value Species Utilization: Silvicultural Implications

In all of these situations, bioenergy operations can be integrated into silviculture in order to optimize outcomes.

There is also the additional class of biomass derived from short-rotation woody crops grown for the specific purpose of producing large volumes of biomass within a short period-of-time. Fiber from these forests is currently only a very minor source of biomass compared to that coming from forest residues. The silviculture of these tree crops is covered elsewhere.

Additional background information on these classes of biomass is given in The Southern Forest.