5.5 Energy Production and Mining
5.5.1 Biomass and Biofuels—Anticipated Impacts Biomass resources includes organic matter from a variety of wood materials and energy crops that can be gasifed, used in combined heat and power technologies or in biochem- ical conversions, used to create biofuels, or used for direct combustion (Milbrant 2005; Fargione et al. 2009) . Tere are two main types of biofuels in use today that are made from biomass resources: ethanol and biodiesel (Biofuels, n.d.). Wood waste products include logging debris that remains from timber clearing operations, thinning of commercial forest stands, and residues left over from lumber mill produc- tion. Common energy crops are corn, soybeans, wheat, various grasses (switch grass and Miscanthus spp. in particular), willow, and hybrid poplar species. Tese resources, as well as many other similar plant and wood resources, can be used to produce biofuels such as biodiesel and ethanol for vehicles and as a replacement for coal used by utilities and indus- trial plants. Biomass production often involves intensive management that uses fertilizers, pesticides, and monocultures of high-yield nonnative cultivars (Fargione et al. 2009) . Grassland birds are a primary taxa group of concern because the loss of early successional and grassland hab- itats converted or managed for biomass production will likely impact species dependent on herbaceous communities (Fargione et al. 2009) . Overall, songbird and small mammal spe- cies richness, diversity, and abundance is expected to be lower where herbaceous biomass crops are produced (Semere and Slater 2007; Sage et al. 2010; Rifell et al. 2011; Robertson et al. 2011a, 2011b; Northrup and Wittmyer 2013) . Te greatest concern is when biomass crops replace native forests or lands in conservation holdings (Rifell et al. 2011; Northrup and Wittmyer 2013) . Biomass crops may pose a risk of becoming invasive if exotic crop species are used, if exotic or native species are modifed through breeding or genetic engineering, or if native species are used outside their home range (Raghu et al. 2006; Barney and DiTomaso 2008; Fargione et al. 2009) . Breeding and genetic modifcation of species may make species more likely to become invasive because desirable agronomic traits such as a fast growth rate and high establish- ment success are also associated with successful invasive species (DiTomaso et al. 2007; Fargione et al. 2009; Buddenhagen et al. 2009; Northrup and Wittmyer 2013) . Managing for specifc species is often the easiest task, especially when the ecological needs of the species are well understood (Fargione et al. 2009) . Frequent harvest of vegetation will very likely favor grassland birds requiring short, sparse vegetation (e.g., Grasshopper Sparrow and Savannah Sparrow) and negatively afect those requiring tall, dense vegetation (e.g., Sedge Wren and Henslow’s Sparrow) (Fargione et al. 2009) . Research is needed to determine the appropriate scale and placement of habitat patches; however, the best harvest scenario is likely to be one that produces a mosaic of harvested and unharvested patches (Fargione et al. 2009) . Small habitat patches may become population sinks if birds using these areas sufer
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2015 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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