University of Florida News - Hardwood fuel is a win-win idea

re: "...The linkage between biodiversity, climate change and wildfire control emerges from the fact that most of our region historically supported open-canopied pine savannas, not forests. Most of the extraordinary biodiversity in these savannas is lost when broadleaved trees are allowed to invade and close the canopy. /Hardwoods invade when fires are suppressed. Shade from these fire-sensitive invaders kills the hundreds of species of understory herbs that historically fueled the low intensity fires that burned through every year or two. Hardwood domination also leads to the demise of gopher tortoises, fox squirrels, red cockaded woodpeckers, and many more species of concern. /After dense forests are allowed to replace open savannas and woodlands, the fires that are inevitably ignited burn hot - very hot. Decades of fire suppression results in dangerous accumulations of fuel, fires that are too intense to stop, and lots of losses, financial and otherwise. /What Brian and I found was that, by selling the invasive hardwoods to the highest bidders, the costs of pine savanna restoration are greatly reduced or even made profitable. Unfortunately, the hardwood market isn’t so good, so most of the invasive hardwood biomass in the 13 restoration projects we studied was sold for fuel chips. The fuel chips are burned in place of fossil fuels to generate electricity..."...