Puako Kiawe Forest Sustainable Management Pilot Project Analysis

Abstract:

In 2007, Integrated Living Systems Design LLC worked for 9 months on .25 acres of a dense area representative of the most productive portions of the Puako Kiawe forest, to determine how much time, labor, cost and yield would be involved in a sustainable management program for the entire forest. Access ways into the site, were first cut in order to make space for removing large posts and rounds of firewood. Horizontal stems and dead woody debris were removed before thinning the site to the desired density of ~40 trees/acre. All woody debris <2" diameter was chipped and the larger diameter pieces were graded as raw materials for value added products. The project was funded via the sale of the resulting firewood and posts.

Roughly 40 tons of woody biomass were harvested while another 2 tons on the ground and ~30-40 tons left standing in the trees were destroyed in the fire. The harvest was 34% - Firewood, 52% - Posts, 6% - Chips, 7% - Millable. Estimates of woody biomass production over time may average ~23 tons/ha/yr. A systems analysis and recommendations for improvement are included. The results of this study exemplify the maximum woody biomass yield from Prosopis pallida under ideal conditions which can help characterize fuel loads and carbon sequestration potential at similar sites.

 

 

 

	Before Treatment
	After Treatment (Almost...)
	After the Fire of September '07

Value Added Products

 

Introduction

Methods

Results

Discussion

References