Page 30 - Georgia Forestry - Issue 4 - Fall 2020

ENERGY EFFICENCY
torrefaction:
Wood pellets are heated in the absence of oxygen to make them more energy-dense and hydrophobic. These energy-packed pellets withstand wet transportation, unlike traditional white pellets.
of oxygen to make them more energy- dense and hydrophobic. The black wood pellets become energy-packed powerhouses and withstand wet transportation issues that disintegrate traditional white pellets.
Willard and Dartnell cite ongoing political issues that are clouding the market picture, including tariffs on China and the fact that without an extension of the H-2B bill, migrant workers may not be available for reforestation activities this planting season. While some say this is an opportunity for U.S. labor, others insist the reality of those jobs being filled by Americans is slim. According to Willard, without migrant labor, forest management methods could change from traditional to non-traditional methods in the long term.
Willard said a shift from planned planting to natural seeding would be much less productive. If a bad seed year is encountered, germination can be hindered. On the other hand, in a good seed year, instead of 500 to 600 healthy trees per acre, 5,000 could grow, creating difficulty with thinning and harvesting machinery. “There are lots of variables,” Willard said.
GFC’s Reforestation Chief Jeff Fields agreed, saying commercial nurseries and landowners would be most affected by that sequence of events.
“GFC’s Flint River Nursery’s situa- tion is different because we don’t use H-2B workers,” Fields said. “All of the seedling lifting and packing crews we use during tree planting season are hired as temporary day labor. They’re run through the E-Verify system, so they are either documented resident aliens or U.S. citizens.” Seedling sales for the upcoming season are well under- way at GFC, and supply and demand are at expected levels.
Clearly, every segment of the forestry community has been impacted by the events of recent months. And while predictions for the future are rarely guarantees of what’s to come, the con- tinual growth of trees can certainly be asteadyguidetobetterdaysahead.
STASIA KELLY IS A MEDIA RELATIONS SPECIALIST WITH GEORGIA FORESTRY COMMISSION. STASIA IS FOCUSED ON TELLING THE STORY OF FORESTRY AND THE IMMENSE IMPACT OF THE INDUS- TRY ON GEORGIA’S ENVIRONMENT, ECONOMY AND HERITAGE.
then be sold to businesses that buy them for carbon offsets. The process is being used in Europe and California with good success, and Dartnell said the time is right to start doing this in the wood basket of the Southeast.
Dartnell is optimistic as well about current Georgia research on the treat- ment of fiber to achieve new outcomes, and the utilization of certain emissions for novel products.
“Instead of paying to knock solids out of industrial exhausts, maybe they can
be captured and converted to useful, valuable products,” Dartnell said. “Things like medicines and fragrances. Or capture carbon extracts and return and reuse them, even inject them into a soda bottle for carbonization. The public is very interested in making these things happen.”
Another process that is getting a lot of interest is the variety of ways wood fibers can be treated to make them more usable. In a process called torrefaction, wood pellets are heated in the absence

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