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HEARTPINE
By Ben Larson, Enviva
HEARTPINE Photo courtesy of Enviva.
In the summer of 2017, it was my second week on the job at the historic range of longleaf. We produce wood pellets for heat Enviva, and what I was witnessing in the Florida Panhandle and power applications, selling our pellets to customers located was a dream come true—Enviva was supporting, through its in the United Kingdom, Europe, and increasingly in Japan, to wood purchasing, the restoration of a longleaf pine forest. We displace coal and fight climate change. were at Torreya State Park, where To make wood pellets, Enviva sand pine stands were being sources low-grade hardwood and clearcut to re-establish longleaf. Enpine, in the form of chips or roundviva’s purchasing of the chipped-up wood, from loggers and wood supsand pine was an integral step in pliers as well as sawdust and other restoring longleaf. residues from sawmills. Because More broadly, I could see the remany existing longleaf forests need alized synergy between the world’s thinning, and because millions of largest pellet manufacturer and the acres of former longleaf forests were longleaf community’s need to reconverted to different forest types, move significant volumes of hardappropriate biomass removals are a wood and pine to restore existing critical step in the longleaf restoralongleaf stands and to establish miltion process. Our sourcing can be By buying the wood chips from the thinning operation, lions of new acres of longleaf forests. particularly helpful in creating deEnviva owns and operates eight Enviva’s sourcing supported the restoration of gopher mand for some types of material, like tortoise habitat on 800 acres of longleaf at Geneva State pellet plants in the U.S. Southeast, small-diameter mid-canopy hardWildlife Management Area in southern Alabama. Photo coincidentally located in or close to by Ben Larson. wood, which has limited (or no other) [ 60 ]
