Dogwood Alliance

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Dogwood Alliance

• Protection and restoration of Endangered Forests
• Working Forests managed to a high environmental
  standard
• Increased use of environmentally friendly fiber
  sources. i.e. Post-consumer recycled and FSC
  certified fibers

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Southern Forests
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Mixed Hardwood Forest
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Cumberland Plateau, Tennessee
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Southern Forests

• Highest concentration of tree species diversity
  in North America.
• Highest concentration of aquatic diversity in the
  continental US, including the richest temperate
  freshwater ecosystem in the world.
• Highest concentration of wetlands in the US (75
  of which are forested).

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No where in America is there a greater variety
of native plant communities, native plant species
or rare and endemic plants

• 150 tree species
• 1400 herbaceous species
• 2,250 total plant species

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The Green Swamp, Great Dismal Wildlife Refuge and
Southeast Coast
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Paper Production Industrial Forestry
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The South produces more timber than any other
single country in the world, and it is projected
to remain the dominant producing region for many
decades to come. USFS
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Longleaf Pine/Wiregrass Forest
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This is something you wouldnt have dreamed of
25 years ago. Its that new the land being
devastated like this. Herbert Volner, saw
miller, Parsons, TN
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Industrial Forestry Chemical Use
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Converting Wetlands to Plantations
The conversion of bottom land wetland forests
to plantations is the leading cause of freshwater
forested wetlands loss in the South. USFWS
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Cellulosic Ethanol and Southern forests

• Biofuel is any fuel that derives from biomass
  recently living organisms or their metabolic
  byproducts. Thus it could be oils from plants,
  manure from cows, wood from trees and so on.
• Cellulosic Ethanol While conventional ethanol is
  derived from soft starches (corn for example),
  cellulosic ethanol is derived from a wide variety
  of sources of cellulose (cell wall) plant fiber.
  These range from stalks and grain straw to
  switchgrass and quick-growing trees (poplar and
  willow), including wood wastebut what about
  Southern forests?

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Cellulosic Ethanol Efficiency

• 2/3 as efficient as gasoline. 1.5 gallons of
  ethanol in the tank t gallon of gasoline in
  terms of energy output

• Wood biomass is the least efficient in terms of
  cellulosic ethanol. Switchgrass reguires 45 and
  wood biomass requires 57 more fossil energy
  required than the fuel production.

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Pine Plantations for Ethanol?

• The Southern US contains 32 million acres of
  monoculture pine plantations, 75 of which were
  converted from native forests.
• Pine plantations are the main
• source for cellulosic ethanol in the Southern
  USincreasing the rate of conversion of native
  forests to pine plantations.
• There is 90-95 less bio-diversity in a
• pine plantation than in a natural forests
  ecosystem.

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Range Fuels, Georgia Ethanol Plant

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• Local and Regional Threats
• Range Fuels--Georgia, an ethanol 'Saudi Arabia,'
  says GEFA fuels director
• Georgia and Range Fuels plan to be at the
  forefront of the USs domestic ethanol
  production.this is the first cellulosic ethanol
  plant in the United States.
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• The Range Fuels Georgia plant is the first of
  its kind and if successful will lead the way for
  ethanol plants all over the country.
• They plan to use wood waste.

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GE Trees and the Southern US
The south has more test plots of GE trees than
anywhere else on Earth
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Other threats to Southern Forests from Cellulosic
Ethanol

• No Regulation
• No guidelines have been put in place that
  determine how the
• biomass will be harvested for biofuel opening the
  gateway to
• more clearcutting in areas determined
  industrially unfit,
• areas that are vital for the ecosystems of the
  community.

• There are no regulations set in place in regards
  to what is wood waste .
• 90 of Southern forests are privately owned, so
  lack any real legal restrictions.
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Global threats

• Global Deforestiona leading
• cause of global warming
• The South is the largest paper producing region
  in the worldif the Southern US becomes a major
  cellulosic ethanol producer that will its going
  to move forestry for paper to the developing
  world, put greater pressure in central and S
  America, Indonesia, the Congo, SE Aisa.
• This would increase deforestation
  globallydeforestation is the second leading
  cause of global warming.
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Food Scarcity The priority placed on biofuel
crops is already creating forest devastation in
places like Brazil and Indonesia, raising food
prices and creating food scarcity all over the
world.  
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Global Warming and Conversion

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•  Touted to help reduce global warming, but its
  increasing deforestation globally which is the
  2nd leading cause of CO2 emissions.
• Southern US has vast sinks of carbon.

• Cellulosic biofuel is not the carbon neutral
  alternative energy that the DOE presents it to
  be.

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Conclusion

• Forests are not the answer for ethanol
  production.
• Increase other alternatives energies.
• Decrease fuel consumption overall.
• There is potential to explore the carbon offsets
  for landowners to manage their land sustainably.

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OR
The choice is ours.
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• P.O. Box 7645
• Asheville, NC 28802
• 828-251-2525
• www.dogwoodalliance.org