Strategy outlined for growing bioenergy while protecting wildlife

EurekaAlert
Public release date: 1-Oct-2009
American Institute of Biological Sciences

Careful planning, together with the use of feedstocks from perennial-dominated prairie, could minimize the adverse effects of expanding bioenergy use on wildlife

A study described in the October issue of BioScience identifies diverse native prairie as holding promise for yielding bioenergy feedstocks while minimizing harm to wildlife. Harvesting diverse prairie, which is dominated by perennial plants, could avoid adverse environmental effects associated with expanding cultivation of corn for ethanol, such as loss of wildlife habitat and high fertilizer runoff. It could also avoid the threat of invasion posed by cultivation of exotic biofuel crops.

The study, by Joseph E. Fargione of the Nature Conservancy and nine coauthors, explores how choices between a variety of current and emerging bioenergy feedstocks and production practices could affect wildlife as demand for biofuels increases. The growing US use of biofuels—so far, almost entirely ethanol made from corn—has contributed to a sharp reduction of the amount of grassland that landowners had enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program. The conversion of grassland to corn cropland has most likely harmed grassland-dependent wildlife, and a congressional mandate to further step up biofuel production in coming years will add to this pressure.

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