economic-based objections to the wise use of excess woody debris, we com-pared the monetary value of mammalian biodiversity associated with constructed windrows with those estimated for woody debris used for bioenergy purposes or simply burned. Chip Thickness Screening Long life and superior performance DiamondRoll TM Thickness & Fines Screens Highest removal efficiencies Variable Inter -Roll Opening Non -plugging Disc Thickness Screen Welded design for strength & long service life High Inter -Facial Opening accuracy Minimal maintenance Air Density Separator Exact air flow control Outstanding knot & contaminant removal Low fiber losses Chip Cracker Low pins and fines production Keyed, solid stainless steel segments Efficient overthick processing DiamondRoll TM Thickness Screen Two study areas (Elkhart and Golden) were located in south-central British Columbia. Three windrows of woody debris were installed in clear-cuts (har-vested in 2011), connecting uncut forest reserves or patches at each study area. Populations of forest-floor small mam-mals and incidence of mustelid (weasel family) predators were measured in con-ventionally dispersed CWD, windrow, and adjacent uncut forest sites from 2012 to 2015. A total of nine species of forest-floor small mammals were cap-tured. At Elkhart, mean total abundance of voles and small mammals were higher in the windrow sites than the dispersed or forest sites. At Golden, mean total abundance of voles was similar, but mean total abundance of small mammals was higher in the dispersed and wind-row sites than the forest sites. The windrow sites had 5.8 times more activity by marten and small weasels than the forest sites, and 3.9 times higher levels of activity than the dispersed sites at Elkhart. This difference was 3.3 times higher in windrow than dispersed sites at Golden. In terms of mammalian biodiversity, diversity of small mammals was highest in the windrow sites at both study areas. A valuation of mammalian biodiversity has indicated at least five components that may potentially generate some mon-etary revenue by constructing windrow habitats on clear-cuts. These components include: commercial fur harvest of mar-ten, small weasels, and other fur-bearers; enhancement of predators to help lower vole numbers and protect plantation trees from vole feeding damage; small mammals disseminate mycorrhizal fungi that are essential components for tree and plant growth; consumption of inverte-brates by small mammals (including ro-dents and shrews) may help control some insect populations such as spruce beetle; and dissemination and caching of seeds in safe sites by small mammals may be important for forest regeneration. Wind-row construction will be site-and cut-block-specific with windrows connecting patches of uncut forest to forest reserves and riparian areas. They are not required on every cutblock, and generally use only 10 to 15 per cent of excess post-harvest woody debris. Production of wood pellets is, indeed, a worthwhile endeavour and likely de-pendent on size of pellet production plant and distance to haul wood chips from the various harvested sites to the plant. Bioenergy is a renewable enterprise that results in reduced use of fossil fuels. This can result in a reduction in carbon emissions – a widely supported environ-mental goal. In addition, biomass sources in this study were from harvest residues rather than removal of whole trees. Per-haps the most cost-revealing part of our analysis was the negative human and environmental costs of burning piles of wood waste. Policies regulating “utilization and disposal of waste wood piles” need to be revised as soon as possible to: 1. Allocate waste wood resources to the biofuels sector in a cost-effective manner; 2. Implement windrow habitats where necessary to maintain mam-malian biodiversity on clearcuts; 3. Limit burning of waste wood to those sites near human activity (potential fire hazard) that do not have an opportunity for bioener-gy purposes. We thank the Wood Pellet Association of Canada, Natural Sciences and Engi-neering Research Council of Canada, As-pen Planers Ltd., Louisiana-Pacific Cor-poration, the British Columbia Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation, the West-bank First Nation, Jaeden Resources Ltd., Gold Mountain Mining Corp., and the Applied Mammal Research Institute for financial and logistical support. • Thomas Sullivan is a professor of wild-life ecology and conservation, food and environment – Faculty of Land and Food Systems, Dept. of Forest and Conser-vation Sciences – Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia. He can be reached at [email protected]. Raised Roll Disc Thickness Screen 425.258.3555 www.acrowood.com For more information about bioenergy and bioproducts, visit canadianbiomassmagazine.ca 26 Canadian BIOMASS 2016-03-03 7:22 AM MARCH/APRIL 2016 CBM_MarApr16_Acrowood_CSA.indd 1
Canadian Biomass March April 2016: Page 26
