Nathaniel Anderson

Estimates of carbon stored in harvested wood products from the United States forest service northern region, 1906-2010

BackgroundGlobal forests capture and store significant amounts of CO2 through photosynthesis. When carbon is removed from forests through harvest, a portion of the harvested carbon is stored in wood products, often for many decades. The United States Forest Service (USFS) and other agencies are interested in accurately accounting for carbon flux associated with harvested wood products (HWP) to meet greenhouse gas monitoring commitments and climate change adaptation and mitigation objectives. This paper uses the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) production accounting approach and the California Forest Project Protocol (CFPP) to estimate HWP carbon storage from 1906 to 2010 for the USFS Northern Region, which includes forests in northern Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, and eastern Washington.ResultsBased on the IPCC approach, carbon stocks in the HWP pool were increasing at one million megagrams of carbon (MgC) per year in the mid 1960s, with peak cumulative storage of 28 million MgC occurring in 1995. Net positive flux into the HWP pool over this period is primarily attributable to high harvest levels in the mid twentieth century. Harvest levels declined after 1970, resulting in less carbon entering the HWP pool. Since 1995, emissions from HWP at solid waste disposal sites have exceeded additions from harvesting, resulting in a decline in the total amount of carbon stored in the HWP pool. The CFPP approach shows a similar trend, with 100-year average carbon storage for each annual Northern Region harvest peaking in 1969 at 937,900 MgC, and fluctuating between 84,000 and 150,000 MgC over the last decade.ConclusionsThe Northern Region HWP pool is now in a period of negative net annual stock change because the decay of products harvested between 1906 and 2010 exceeds additions of carbon to the HWP pool through harvest. However, total forest carbon includes both HWP and ecosystem carbon, which may have increased over the study period. Though our emphasis is on the Northern Region, we provide a framework by which the IPCC and CFPP methods can be applied broadly at sub-national scales to other regions, land management units, or firms.

A productivity and cost comparison of two systems for producing biomass fuel from roadside forest treatment residues.

Abstract Forest operations generate large quantities of forest biomass residues that can be used for production of bioenergy and bioproducts. However, a significant portion of recoverable residues are inaccessible to large chip vans, making use financially infeasible. New production systems must be developed to increase productivity and reduce costs to facilitate use of these materials. We present a comparison of two alternative systems to produce biomass fuel (i.e., “hog fuel”) from forest residues that are inaccessible to chip vans: (1) forwarding residues in fifth-wheel end-dump trailers to a concentration yard, where they can be stored and then ground directly into chip vans, and (2) grinding residues on the treatment unit and forwarding the hog fuel in high-sided dump trucks to a concentration yard, where it can be stored and then reloaded into chip vans using a front-end loader. To quantify the productivity and costs of these systems, work study data were collected for both systems on the same treat...

Comparison of standard maximum likelihood classification and polytomous logistic regression used in remote sensing

Abstract Discriminant analysis, referred to as maximum likelihood classification within popular remote sensing software packages, is a common supervised technique used by analysts. Polytomous logistic regression (PLR), also referred to as multinomial logistic regression, is an alternative classification approach that is less restrictive, more flexible, and easy to interpret. To assess the utility of PLR in image classification, we compared the results of 15 classifications using independent validation datasets, estimates of kappa and error, and a non-parametric analysis of variance derived from visually interpreted observations, Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus imagery, PLR, and traditional maximum likelihood classifications algorithms.

Financial Performance of a Mobile Pyrolysis System Used to Produce Biochar from Sawmill Residues

Abstract Primary wood products manufacturers generate significant amounts of woody biomass residues that can be used as feedstocks for distributed-scale thermochemical conversion systems that produce valuable bioenergy and bioproducts. However, private investment in these technologies is driven primarily by financial performance, which is often unknown for new technologies with limited industrial deployment. In this paper, we use shift-level production data collected during a 25-day field study to characterize the conversion rate and system productivity and costs for a commercially available pyrolysis system co-located at a sawmill, and then evaluate the net present value (NPV) of the operation in light of a cost structure that is realistic for the industry. Baseline costs on a feedstock throughput basis were estimated as

On-Site Energy Consumption at Softwood Sawmills in Montana

16.41 t−1 for feedstock preparation,

Cost and performance tradeoffs between mail and internet survey modes in a nonmarket valuation study

308.14 t−1 for conversion, and

Use of lidar-derived landscape parameters to characterize alternative harvest system options in the Inland Northwest

65.99 t−1 for biochar bagging. The NPV estimated for the worst-case scenario of observed productivity and conversio...

New Geospatial Approaches for Efficiently Mapping Forest Biomass Logistics at High Resolution over Large Areas

Abstract Total on-site energy requirements for wood product manufacturing are generally not well understood or publicly available, particularly at subregional scales, such as the state level. This article uses a mail survey of softwood sawmills in Montana to develop a profile of all on-site energy consumption. Energy use is delineated by fuel type on a production basis for both renewable and nonrenewable sources for production year 2009. Survey respondents represented 92 percent of total Montana softwood lumber production of 449 million board feet, which is 4 percent of western US production and 2 percent of national production. Total annual on-site sawmill energy required was 1.6 trillion British thermal units. Seventy-seven percent was derived from wood and bark, primarily for process heat and steam for lumber drying; 16 percent was from electricity; 5 percent was from diesel used for on-site rolling stock; and the remainder was from gasoline, propane, and natural gas. Energy produced from renewable sou...

Life Cycle Analysis of Biochar

Using the results of a choice modeling survey, internet, mail-only and mixed internet and mail survey modes were examined with regards to their cost-effectiveness, representativeness, and willingness to pay (WTP). The topical focus of the study was biomass energy generation preferences of the residents of Montana, Colorado and Arizona, USA. Compared to the mail and mixed mode samples, the internet-only mode produced a sample of respondents that was younger, more likely to have a college degree, and more likely to have a household income of at least

On-site energy consumption and selected emissions at softwood sawmills in the southwestern United States

100,000 per year. However, observed differences in the characteristics of the collected sample did not result in significant differences in estimates of WTP. The internet survey mode was the most cost-effective method of collecting the target sample size of 400 responses. Sensitivity analysis showed that as the target number of responses increased the cost advantage of internet over the mail-only and mixed mode surveys increased because of the low marginal cost associated with extending additional invitations.