US biomass trip: in photos

I recently travelled to the US to see the forests impacted by EU bioenergy policy and the increased demand for wood pellets. All photos by me, Matt Adam Williams.

The forests of North Carolina are incredibly rich in wildlife, including this little lizard I found.

One of my favourite moments had to be when we saw a bald eagle from a boat we took a trip on.

This is a pile of whole trees sitting at the Ahoskie pellet mill. These trees will be turned into wood pellets that are then shipped across to the UK or other countries to be burned for electricity. We know that this practice can be very bad for the climate and devastating for the wildlife that depends on the forests these trees came from.

This is one of the clearcuts we saw. We stumbled across this one and we don't know for certain if it is linked to felling for wood pellets. But Dogwood Alliance know that many clearcuts in the area are linked to the wood pellet industry, as they have followed the trucks of logs from the clearcuts to the gates of the wood pellet mills. Many of those clearcuts, like this one, used to be beautiful hardwood forest full of wildlife.