Environmental impacts of harvesting

Intensive harvesting for energy production removes a disproportionate amount of nutrients, relative to biomass, and may also lead to site degradation or off-site impacts resulting from use of heavy equipment on sensitive soils. Scientifically-designed long-term field trials are required to accurately determine the impacts of harvesting on long-term site productivity, and to enable the design of more environmentally-sensitive silvicultural systems and ameliorative treatments. Design criteria for long-term site productivity studies and recommendations for “minimum data sets” and relevant process studies are discussed. International communication and collaboration is required to ensure that studies are relevant and that science funding is used as effectively as possible.