Quantification of Biomass Potential from Timber Stand Improvement (TSI) Operations in Hardwood Stands in North Carolina

.......................................................................................................2 Background ...................................................................................................4 Forest trends ...........................................................................................4 Energy from biomass ................................................................................5 Carbon and biomass ..................................................................................7 Sustainability ........................................................................................11 Objective .....................................................................................................12 Methods .......................................................................................................14 Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) ............................................................14 Energy analysis .....................................................................................20 Results ........................................................................................................24 Species composition trends ........................................................................24 Biomass estimates ..................................................................................28 Discussion ....................................................................................................33 Northern and Southern Coastal Plain ............................................................33 Piedmont and Mountains ..........................................................................35 Biomass supply potential ..........................................................................38 Energy potential ....................................................................................40 Conclusions ..................................................................................................42 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................44 References ...................................................................................................45 Appendix .....................................................................................................48