ERG student José Daniel Lara and ERG professor Daniel Kammen, in collaboration with forest researchers in UC Berkeley’s department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, recently published “Characterization of the woody biomass feedstock potential resulting from California’s drought” in Nature, Scientific Reports.
“Regional tree die-of events generate large quantities of standing dead wood, raising concern over catastrophic wildfire and other hazards. Governmental responses to tree die-off have often focused on incentivizing biomass energy production that utilizes standing dead trees removed for safety concerns. However, the full distribution of potential woody bioenergy feedstock after tree die-off has not been evaluated due to the complexities of surveying and precisely measuring large forested areas,” the paper states.
Read the full paper here.
Image: Sarah Klockars-Clauser