Speaker
Description
To mitigate wildfire risk in the western United States, forest fuel treatments such as mechanical thinning and prescribed burning have been widely implemented in fire-prone areas. While these treatments play a critical role in reducing wildfire hazards, they also present both opportunities and challenges. A substantial amount of biomass generated from fuel treatments offers new opportunities for bioenergy development. However, without effective downstream utilization, the resulting residues may lead to issues related to piling, transportation, and secondary combustion. Existing forest biomass supply chain studies have primarily focused on logging residues and sawmill residues, with limited attention paid to biomass derived from fuel treatments as a feedstock source. Moreover, spatially explicit assessments of biomass availability aligned with priority investment landscapes remain scarce. This study aims to develop a novel biomass supply chain framework that incorporates fuel treatment products into upstream biomass supply and to evaluate their supply potential and system costs under different utilization scenarios. The proposed framework integrates multiple methodological approaches, including forest management simulations based on the FVS-BioSum model, GIS-based spatial suitability analysis, and a comparative application of mathematical programming and machine learning techniques for supply chain optimization. The results are expected to provide quantitative decision support for the Wildfire Crisis Strategy and regional bioeconomy development. This study contributes to the coordinated advancement of sustainable forest management and the energy transition.
| Keywords | Wildfire; Treatment; Biomass; Biochar |
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