Agenda - Council Work Session - 02/25/2025

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comes from trees with defects that make them unusable for milling into higher value products or from trees too small to be milled. If there is no market for these trees, often they are left to rot or are piled and burned to reduce wildfire risk. In the last few years, over a dozen states have developed additional guidelines to protect ecosystem services provided by forests, like water quality, wildlife, soil productivity, and others while harvesting wood for energy ("biomass"). Some regional guidelines have also been developed. The sustainable use of firewood also involves responsible transport so that firewood users do not help move invasive insects and diseases to new areas. The Don't Move Firewood campaign provides a vital role educating homeowners about this issue, which most frequently involves transporting wood for recreational campfires. IIt In terms of sustainable levels of emissions, pellet heating is typically much cleaner than chunk wood, although masonry heaters, can be as clean and efficient as pellet heat when they are used properly. Even the cleanest pellet heating will not be as clean as gas, oil or propane at the point of combustion. But in a full life - cycle analysis, when harvested sustainably, pellet heating likely has far less negative environmental impacts than fossil fuel heating. In terms of wood supply, over the past three decades, since residential pellet heating has taken off in the United States, the overwhelming majority of wood to make pellets has been sawdust from sawmills, furniture factories and other wood processing companies. The stream of fiber for domestic pellet heating has been sustainable because the sawdust from those factories was often considered a waste product. More recently, sawdust has become more valuable and today it is sold for a variety of uses, from particleboard to animal bedding to pulp and paper. As dry sawdust has become more valuable and more competitive, and demand for pellets has risen, more pellet producers are using low quality pulp wood and wood chips traditionally used in the pulp and paper industry to make pellets. Wood chips and logs increase production expenses because they have to be ground up and dried, so they are the last resort for pellet producers. Like any industry, the logging industry has some rogue operators and companies that skirt or bend regulations, and it is possible that some of the wood that they cut gets into the pellet fuel supply. Bad actors may be more prevalent in states with weaker regulations or enforcement, and this would impact the stream of fiber for sawlogs, pulp and paper and every other use of wood. The fiber supply for pellets produced in the Southeastern US for export to Europe is different and more complex and is currently independent from domestic residential use. We advocate for policies that promote efficient use of wood. Heating and combined heat and power are typically in the 60 — 80% efficiency range, whereas it is in the 20 — 30% range for electricity alone. Subscribe now for a latest updates.