Sensitive North Carolina wetland forests are threatened by Europe’s voracious appetite for wood pellets, two environmental groups say in a new report that targets the Enviva pellet mill in Ahoskie.
The report warns that wetland hardwoods around Ahoskie are more likely to undergo industrial-style logging because Enviva has created a new market for low-value trees that would not have been cut down in the past.
“Their demand for whole trees from these forests is driving the clear-cutting of these forests,” said Debbie Hammel, a senior resource specialist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, based in San Francisco.
The NRDC and the Asheville-based Dogwood Alliance criticize Enviva, the nation’s biggest pellet maker, in a report that includes maps of ecologically sensitive forests near Ahoskie.
Enviva draws on timber from roughly a 75-mile radius to make pellets for shipment to the United Kingdom and Europe, where electric utilities burn the pellets for fuel. UK and European environmental policies are driving electric utilities to use imported wood in their boilers instead of coal.
From The Charlotte Observer: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/08/28/4268559/conservationists-report-links.html