Work

 The U.S. exported nearly 7.26 million metric tons of wood pellets in 2020, up five percent from 2019, according to the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. Due to the rising interest in this energy source across the globe, researchers in the Forest and Wildlife Research Center seek to develop a cost-effective reliable material that is sturdier in transport and burns cleaner when consumed.  

   U.K.-based renewable energy company Drax has partnered with Dr. Jason Street in the Department of Sustainable Bioproducts to discover solutions to common problems seen in wood pellets, such as pellet deterioration during transport.  

  “We are attempting to create a hotter burning wood energy pellet that has less off-gassing when compared to traditional wood pellets. This idea is to see if we can transform low-value products into high-value products and increase profitability values for timber producers,” Street said.  

  They started their research by testing alternative additives in the pelletizing process. Traditionally, cornstarch is used as an additive to produce pellets. Street and his team began with materials like biochar, bio-oil, sweet potato, vegetable oil, and other various additives to produce pellets in a laboratory.  

   After attempting the production process in a laboratory setting, they transitioned to an industrial sized production to mirror the normal production process of pellets. 

  “We were trying to produce pellets on a lab scale using a novel pneumatic system and then a hydraulic system to try and improve the pressure and mimic the temperatures,” Street said.  

  They found that their team could mimic one aspect of the industrialized mill production process at a time but incorporating multiple aspects of industrial-sized production wasn’t ideal in the laboratory setting.  

  The team accessed an industrial-sized mill at the Pace Seed Lab and obtained more comparable results than before.  

  “Using the Sprout Waldron mill allows industrial pellet producers to be able to determine the outcome they can expect in power requirements and pellet quality. We have found that the characteristics of pellets made using a lab bench-top press and small heated die to produce pellets do not compare as well to the pellet characteristic of pellets made with industrial equipment,” Street says.  

  Tyler Lowe, an industrial and systems engineering graduate student who works in the lab, explained that with this research, they can utilize natural resources, which helps satisfy the regulations the industry has established.  

  “A lot of the additives we are trying in the different wood pellets are materials that are not being utilized anymore. We are taking waste products, recycling and reusing them, and creating recycled products that are enhancing the pellets,” Lowe said.  

  The production process for wood pellets is meticulous. The team had to closely analyze many variables that affect the outcomes, such as the additives used, the moisture content of the pellets, and the pressure and heat applied to the pellets.  

  “One thing that surprised me was all the different tests we had to conduct. There are so many different aspects of the pellets, like the moisture content, you have to learn in order to understand the dynamic between the wood and additives being used,” Lowe said.  

  Now, the bio-oils and biochar researched are in the approval process. This will determine if the production and additives meet the environmental criteria set forth by Drax. 

  “There is much potential for wood energy pellets to help improve heating systems. We reported the potential we found during production using certain additives to the company,” Street said. 

  After three years of research, the partnership with Drax is yielding results. The researchers have found ways to make a better, stronger pellet that burns cleaner and costs less. 

  This research is funded by Drax and the Forest and Wildlife Research Center.  

Diversifying Plan Plantations

Graduate research aimed to expand and modernize multiple species planting

By Grace Jones

December 2021

   From a small, historic town known for its abundant source of Bauxite and a large producer of aluminum during World War II, Darcey Collins grew up surrounded by hardwood forests and pine plantations. Collins follows in her father’s and grandfather’s footsteps as she pursues a life dedicated to protecting and enhancing forests. 

   While she was compelled to attend Louisiana State University—her family’s alma mater— a visit to Mississippi State changed her trajectory.  

   “After my first visit, I thought, ‘This is like home.’ It was a very comfortable place for me. In interacting with forestry professors and students, people were friendly here and seemed to want me here,” Collins said. 

   Collins has delved into the college’s many opportunities. She is an officer in the Forestry Graduate Student Association, a member of the MSU Student Chapter of the Society of American Foresters, and is involved in multiple research projects beyond the primary research she has been conducting since the start of her graduate program. 

  Collins’s passion for research was ignited in Fall 2019, when the senior forestry major was accepted as an undergraduate research scholar. She attributes the forestry department, along with her interactive, helpful professors, and her interest in hardwood silviculture as factors influencing her decision to pursue a master’s at MSU.  

  Her research focuses on diversifying managed forests by planting multiple hardwood species under a pre-existing canopy and observing growing success. She hopes to successfully establish mixed-species under an existing canopy, to benefit nonindustrial private landowners interested in transitioning away from single species pine plantations with the increase in revenue from the desirable higher timber values of hardwoods. The practice would also benefit wildlife habitat. 

  "We planted shortleaf pine, sweetgum, and four different oak species underneath an established canopy that had already been thinned," Collins said.  

  The planting site is privately owned, within the boundaries of the Bankhead National Forest in Northern Alabama. This planting plantation is an old mining site, which initially raised concerns about the survival rate since the soil was not as healthy as initially desired. 

  Nevertheless, after planting right before spring, Collins noted, “a greater than 90 percent survival of seedlings.”  

Collins said the work would have been daunting without the help of professors and peers.  

   “I have had a lot of help in this, and I am involved in every step. I facilitated the seedling purchase, found the contractors, and planned and organized everything,” Collins said. 

   The planning was an exciting endeavor for Collins to undertake. She committed most of her time to the success of this research by traveling to Georgia to purchase seedlings for the crop, driving over two-and-half hours to plant and observe the crop, over six times for the duration of two to four days.  

   Collins hopes to study what eventually happens to the seedlings to determine their response to the planting. 

   “I want good survival. At this point, all we can measure is the survival related to the canopy cover that the seedlings are experiencing and their growth during this first growing season. I am curious to see how these trees respond to sudden light. In theory, they should do really well, but only time will tell,” Collins said.  

   While she plans to graduate in Spring 2022 and won’t necessarily see the long-term fruits of her labor, she hopes to stay in touch to learn the final outcome.  

   “Ultimately, our hope is that this research can help us recommend the best mixtures to private landowners who are interested in restoring historic forest types or interested in moving towards mixed-species management while also being able to restore native species without sacrificing management,” she said.  

   Upon graduation, Collins will leave the Bulldog family to begin her job as a forester with Georgia-Pacific in Monticello, Mississippi. Focusing on procurement of roundwood for the Georgia-Pacific mills in the area, Collins continues to embrace her passion for forestry.  

   This research is funded by the Forest and Wildlife Research Center, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Cumberland Plateau Stewardship Fund, and the National Institute for Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, McIntire Stennis project accession #1019117. 

Leveling the Fishing Field

Research designed to create beneficial dynamics between lake management and water regimes 

By Grace Jones

December 2021

   The Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee Refuge is a beloved area for many to enjoy, especially the beautiful and multi-purposeful Bluff Lake that greets visitors as they arrive. The waterway attracts visitors to enjoy its spillway, plant habitats, birds, and other wildlife, along with an occasional alligator sighting. While the lake attracts many anglers and observers, it is also an optimal location for research.

   Dr. Mike Colvin, associate professor, Dr. J. Brian Davis, James C. Kennedy Endowed Associate Professor in Waterfowl and Wetlands Conservation, and their team of graduate students in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture, are working on a project that will assess the impact management practices have on fisheries, birds, and plant communities in Bluff Lake. The outcome of the research will be a model to assist managers in making informed decisions.

   “We want to formally link management decisions to objectives,” Colvin said. “By manipulating Bluff Lake’s water levels, we can determine what happens to species and habitat when the levels are low and then again when the water is released. With this information, we can create a model for land managers to use.”

   The research will create a dual-purpose framework that could be modeled by other reservoirs by demonstrating projected outcomes between water quality, drawdown dates, and overall relationships of the fishery, water, and habitat. The study simultaneously aims to find management objectives for fish communities, birds, and other wildlife to live in harmony.

   Victoria Starnes, Colvin’s former master’s student who graduated in May 2020, focused her efforts on assessing how significant changes in water levels affected the waterfowl and fish in the lake.

   “To understand how fish respond, a comprehensive assessment was conducted to determine how drastic changes in water volume effect the response of common sportfish, including how they assemble together, how they feed, and their condition,” Starnes said. “Likewise, it is important to determine how these drawdowns effect angler effort and catch. Both the assessment of fisheries and anglers are needed to develop the model,” Starnes said.

   As the research began, water drawdowns were conducted to achieve bird and duck community habitat objectives for feeding. Drawdowns allow plant communities to be exposed to sunlight, which results in the growth and production of food for bird communities. However, this objective is not beneficial to fish communities. This pushed the researchers to determine how they could manage water levels to maintain a successful fishery habitat in the lake while working to also grow plant communities.

   “The question that aroused this research was how do we balance keeping the water levels high enough for anglers while trying to create mudflats for duck habitat? How do we take care of the fish and balance that with waterfowl management?” Davis said.

   Their research team conducted bathymetry, the study of water depths, of Bluff Lake to measure high and low water levels. They scoped water level changes around the lake. They identified the layout of the lake, which contributed to building a model to see how much water they could release and how long the levels could be lowered before needing to be restored.

   After three years of dedicated research focused on fish, water levels, and plant communities in Bluff Lake, Colvin finds promise in the research.

   “With our model, we can adequately quantify possible outcomes and incorporate that into how we evaluate the relative benefit of different potential water releases that can be done out of a reservoir,” Colvin said.

    Davis explained that since Bluff Lake did not undergo water drawdowns in 2019 or 2020, the planned de-watering could not be executed. Yet, their research team has compiled enough data to develop a model on how to successfully manage fish and fishery goals along with shore and water bird needs and plant communities while monitoring the water levels of the lake.

    “We wanted to create an environment that met the needs of fish and fishery as well as shore and water birds while equipping lake managers with a model that can act as a how-to guide for altering water levels within reservoirs to create dual benefits with fish and water bird communities,” Davis said.

   Colvin and Davis, along with their team, have created this real-world, applicable model that unifies communities like Bluff Lake and provides the information needed to apply to other reservoirs where fish and birds cohabitate based on structured decision making.

   This research was sponsored by United States Fish and Wildlife Service.