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Roadmap for Poplar and Willow

Poplar Willow Forum participants saw a need for guidance on how to further combine poplar/willow’s environmental benefits and bioeconomy potential. As a result, the “Roadmap” was born. The “Roadmap for Poplar and Willow to Provide Environmental Services and to Build the Bioeconomy” outlines:

  1. Benefits of growing poplar and willow
  2. Opportunities for using the biomass from environmental plantings for a new bioenergy and bioproducts industry
  3. Barriers in this new endeavor
  4. Solutions to bridge the gap between growing poplar and willow for environmental applications and the creation of a bioeconomy sustained by poplar and willow feedstocks

Graphic of poplar and willow for environmental applications and for the bioeconomy
Using this system, poplar and willow would be grown for various environmental applications and then used as a biomass feedstock for numerous products within the bioeconomy.

In addition to the Roadmap, the Environmental Applications Series provides examples of successful programs. The series includes information on:

  • Willow grown on marginal and degraded lands in New York.
  • Poplar used to manage biosolids in Oregon and recycled water in Idaho.
  • Willow as a buffer to contain nutrients leaching from agricultural fields in the Midwest.
  • And more…

Links to the Roadmap and Environmental Applications

 

Click the title below to be redirected to the download site:

A Roadmap for Poplar and Willow to Provide Environmental Services and to Build the Bioeconomy

By,

Patricia A. Townsend, Regional Extension Specialist, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Washington State University; Nora Haider, Extension Coordinator Senior, Washington State University Extension, Washington State University; Leslie Boby, Extension Associate, Southern Regional Extension Forestry; Justin Heavey, Sustainability Associate, State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry; Todd A. Miller, Environmental Management Analyst, City of Springfield, Oregon; and Timothy A. Volk, Senior Research Associate, State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry

With contributions by: Noelle Hart, Extension Coordinator, Washington State University Extension, Washington State University; Jud Isebrands, President—Environmental Forestry Consultants, LLC; Chris Johnston, Project Leader, Agri-Environmental Technologies, Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute; Lou Licht, President and Founder, Ecolotree Inc.; Michael Shell, Economist, Office of Transportation and Air Quality, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Bob Simmons, Associate Professor, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Washington State University; and Brian Stanton, Chief Science Officer, GreenWood Resources, Inc.

 


Environmental Applications Series

Map of Environmental Applications of Poplar and Willow in the U.S.

The locations of the referenced environmental applications (starred) and other poplar and willow environmental plantings across the United States. Ecolotree Inc. has implemented many of the landfill covers and buffer systems using both poplar and willow.Click on the following titles to be redirected to the download site: