Dr. Darwin Foster,
I was made aware of the March 14, 2005 web article titled 'Tree-Power' Could
be Future Energy Source on the Texas A&M University System Agriculture
Program web site
(http://agnews.tamu.edu/dailynews/stories/FRSC/Mar1405a.htm). The underlying
message of this article is that wood is just wasted if it is left following
harvest and that it should be used for bio-fuel.
I am concerned about how this article portrays dead wood in a forest
ecosystem and about the resources ($500,000 grant) provided to you to
educate the forest industry on bio-fuels. Dead wood has an important
ecological role that needs to be recognized It is my hope that in promoting
bio-fuels that you will not neglect the importance of dead wood and the need
for forest industry to consider their role as forest stewards in managing
dead wood.
For information on the ecolgical value of dead wood I recommend looking at
the proceedings of a syposium on dead wood in western forests held in 1999
at http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/gtr-181/. Further, I'm
sure that there are many members of the Deadwood Ecology and Management
Discussion list (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dead_wood) who would be
willing to provide you with information on the ecological value of deadwood.

Cheers

Jeff Stone, PhD
Moderator Deadwood Discussion List
jeff.stone@...
Opinions expressed in this email are those of Jeff Stone and do not
represent the opinion or policy of his employer.

To members of the discussion list, here are a couple of paragraphs from the
web page
Science and preliminary economic studies say forest residue can be an
economically viable energy source. What's required is for everyone involved
in the forestry industry - foresters, plant operators, forest landowners,
energy producers and educators - to rethink how they do things, Foster said.

Armed with a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foster
and his colleagues in Extension Forestry and the Texas A&M University
department of forest science plan to develop education modules on forest
bio-fuel production, harvest and utilization. Foster expects the modules
will be comprised of not only printed material, such as brochures and
handbooks, but also Web pages and multi-media CD-ROMs and DVDs.
But the economic benefits are two-fold, he said. First it is a truly
renewable resource. Trees are efficient at turning sunlight, moisture and a
few basic nutrients into bio-mass. Using forest residue as bio-fuel also
will utilize a resource that is being left to rot in the field.