David T. Damery

Forest-based biomass supply in Massachusetts: How much is there and how much is available

Forest owners in Massachusetts (U.S.) live in a densely populated state and near forestland that is under pressure of development and characterized by small parcel size. Forest-based biomass harvesting in Massachusetts is a renewable energy topic generating a great deal of discussion among all constituents. To provide perspective on these discussions, our analysis asks how much forested land in Massachusetts could be available for biomass supply. This analysis considers the level of bioenergy production that could be maintained on an annual basis given the amount of woody biomass that is likely to be supplied from private- and state-owned Massachusetts forests, which comprises nearly 90% of the states forests. Applying the most recent information on forest ownership and owner attitudes in Massachusetts, we estimate that between 80,000 and 369,000 dry tons/year of available wood-based biomass from forest management practices on private- and state-owned forests, or between 1.4 trillion and 6.2 trillion BTUs/year. These estimates represent between 0.09% and 0.42% of all Massachusetts residential, commercial and industrial annual consumption. These estimates are well below Kelty et al.s (2008) estimate of 891,000 dry tons/year; the largest factors in this reduction are the reduced contribution of biomass due to social constraints and the amount of state land considered to be open to active management. Conversations regarding the use of biomass and its impacts on forests, as well as the development of biomass-related policy, should consider the supply of biomass that is likely available. While overall forest inventory estimates suggest one degree of availability, our research suggests that this needs to be tempered with the reality of ownership size and owner attitudes.

Folk Housing Revisited

As Fred Kniffen observed, vernacular buildings identify culture and record our relationships with physical and social environment. Influenced by Kniffen, twentieth‐century cultural geographers used spatially correlated log homebuilding attributes as diagnostics. The present study used a qualitative meta‐study approach to evaluate studies citing such correlations in the eastern temperate forests of North America. Forty‐two studies involving sixty‐three geographic entities and twenty‐two attribute types were evaluated. The meta‐studys findings were consistent with an Eastern Woodlands regional model described by Kniffen, Terry Jordan, and Wilbur Zelinsky. A majority of the spatially correlated attributes involved building materials, cited cultural and/or environmental influences to explain their findings, and cited correlations at state/province or county scales. Today, identification of building culture undoubtedly continues to offer potential guidance to sustainability efforts, and, although untapped, vernacular building continues to offer potential as a key diagnostic.

Forests to buildings: A geography of log home manufacturing

ABSTRACT The article presents a material-geographic study of contemporary log home manufacturing in the Eastern Woodlands of North America. The study investigated relationships between log conversion (i.e., processing) methods and regional location. Manufacturers were grouped by their conversion methods, using hierarchical cluster analysis; and analyzed for spatial correlation, using standard deviational ellipses (SDEs). Tree species utilization, log treatment, horizontal surface type, and corner notch type were found to be spatially differentiating. These attributes were tested for their ability to predict manufacturers’ culture region using multinomial logistic regression (MLR) models. Tree species utilization was an independent variable in all of the predictive models, suggesting a correspondence between building culture and ecological regions. This is consistent with earlier research. The findings suggest that location drives tree species utilization and, thereby, building methods. Like the eco-region itself, log conversion methods vary on a north-south gradient. It is argued that construction knowledge is geo-contextual and that the replacement of scientific wood extraction with ecosystem management as the central paradigm in forestry calls for geo-contextual approaches to sustainability in the construction industry.

Forests to buildings: Tree species utilization, technology, scale of production, and local embeddedness

ABSTRACT The paper presents a study of log home manufacturing. Relationships between log conversion (i.e., processing) methods and manufacturer perspectives on their forest resources were investigated using multinomial logistic regression (MLR) models. Log conversion attributes and production volume were found to predict manufacturers’ timber procurement methods, supply distance, timber performance requirements, influences on log conversion methods, and concern with market barriers to ‘green’ certification. Tree species utilization was a statistically significant independent variable in all of the predictive models. Other log conversion attributes (i.e., corner notch type, log profile, log type) and production volume were statistically significant independent variables in individual models. The results suggest systematic relationships between tree species utilization, processing technology, scale of production, and the local embeddedness of production. Manufacturers are categorized as higher-volume processors of raw logs acquired locally, producing products reflecting traditional regional design, or as lower-volume processors of cants acquired from a greater distance, producing less regionally associated products. The paper concludes by suggesting that specialty forest product manufacturers, processing raw logs, are a bridge between the forest resource and the final product and are, therefore, in a strategic position to impact forest conservation, ecological improvement, and other ecological modernization efforts.

Landowner-driven sustainable forest management and value-added processing: a case study in Massachusetts, USA.

Summary The Massachusetts Woodlands Cooperative, LLC (MWC) is working to help members conduct sustainable forestry of the highest standards while increasing financial returns from harvest activities. The forests of Massachusetts, the third most densely populated state in the United States, are threatened. Decades of high grading and the threat of forest conversion to alternative use present challenges for maintaining a forested landscape. Despite being 60% forested, Massachusetts imports approximately 98% of the wood fiber that its citizens consume. The Massachusetts Woodlands Cooperative is a forest management, processing, and marketing cooperative organized by and on behalf of forest landowners in western Massachusetts. An umbrella group certification protocol was developed to provide cost-effective forestland management certification. Members benefit from cooperative management of harvest operations, above-market stumpage payments, and value-added processing and production including marketing traditionally low-value and small-diameter material. The added revenue from developing these new markets is used to fund timber, wildlife habitat, recreation, and other sustainable forest management activities. The cooperative works in partnership with local wood-processing businesses to spur community economic development. This study on cooperatives may be a successful example of sustainable forest management that can be applied in other regions with private land ownerships.