8 October 2009

… Prairie plants could boost biofuel production

The unintended consequence of crop-based biofuels may be the loss of wildlife habitat, particularly that of the birds who call this country’s grasslands home.

The impact on wildlife when converting grasslands to corn for ethanol production is posing a very real threat to the wildlife whose habitat is changing, said researchers from Michigan Technological University. One potential solution is to use diverse native prairie plants to produce bioenergy instead of a single agricultural crop like corn.

“There are ways to grow biofuel that are more benign,” said David Flaspohler, an associate professor in the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science at Michigan Tech. “Our advice would be to think broadly and holistically about the approach you use to solve a problem and to carefully consider its potential long-term impacts.”

The rapidly growing demand for corn ethanol, fueled by a government mandate to produce 136 billion liters of biofuel by 2022—more than 740% more than 2006—and federal subsidies to farmers to grow corn, is causing a land-use change on a scale not seen since farmers plowed over virgin prairies and enormous swaths of the country’s forests were first cut down to grow food crops, the researchers said.

“Bioenergy is the most land-intensive way to produce energy, so we need to consider the land use implications of our energy policies,” said Joseph Fargione, lead scientist for The Nature Conservancy’s North America Region.

There is a solution. There are at least two ways to produce bioenergy without destroying wildlife habitat, the researchers said. One is to use biomass sources that do not require additional land, such as agricultural residues and other wastes from municipal, animal, food, and forestry industries.

Another is to grow native perennials such as switchgrass and big bluestem. The natural diversity of prairie plants offers many benefits, including increased carbon storage in the soil, erosion control, and the maintenance of insect diversity, which does double duty by providing food for birds and helping to pollinate nearby crops.