Chapter 5 Threats
the Port of Wilmington (NC) or the Port of Chesapeake (VA) to markets in Europe. The company supports sustainable forest management by sourcing our wood from landowners who intend to maintain their land as forests in the long term (Enviva 2025) . The four Enviva facilities in North Carolina are permitted to process up to 2.3 million metric tons of pellets per year. According to an online newsletter (The Assembly 2025) , Enviva’s facilities consume about 50,000 acres of forest each year. In 2024, Enviva declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy with a planned restricting of their operations (Sorg 2024) . Wood waste products include logging debris that remains from timber clearing operations, thinning of commercial forest stands, and residues left over from lumber mill production. Common energy crops are corn, soybeans, wheat, various grasses (switch grass and Miscanthus spp. in particular), willow, and hybrid poplar species. These 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 industrial 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 habitats converted or managed for biomass production will likely impact species dependent on herbaceous communities (Fargione et al. 2009) . Overall, songbird- and small-mammal species richness, diversity, and abundance are expected to be lower where herbaceous biomass crops are produced (Semere and Slater 2007; Sage et al. 2010; Riffell et al. 2011; Robertson et al. 2011a, 2011b; Northrup and Wittmyer 2013) . The greatest concern is when biomass crops replace native forests or lands in conservation holdings (Riffell 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 modified 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 modification of species may make species more likely to become invasive because desirable agronomic traits, such as a fast growth rate and high establishment 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 specific 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 affect 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 suffer higher predation rates (Fargione et al. 2009) . From a wildlife perspective, having multiple harvest times throughout
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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