WILDLIFE VS. BIOFUELS

In Search of Wildlife-Friendly Biofuels
Jennifer Donovan, October 5, 2009 (U.S. News & World Report)

"…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…

"In a paper published in the October 2009 issue of the journal BioScience, [researchers] analyze the impacts on wildlife…[and] conclude that the ongoing conversion of grasslands to corn for ethanol production is posing a very real threat to the wildlife whose habitat is being transformed. One potential solution: Use diverse native prairie plants to produce bioenergy instead of a single agricultural crop like corn…"


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

"Whether land used to grow corn for ethanol causes a loss of wildlife habitat depends on the type of land use it replaces. Most of the recent expansion in land planted to corn involves land previously used to grow other crops. But… federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) [land] is also being converted to crop production."

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"CRP is a voluntary program that pays rent to landowners to convert their agricultural land to natural grasslands or tree cover, reducing soil erosion, improving water quality and benefiting wildlife…CRP land has been shown to help native birds survive and thrive…On the other hand, converting CRP land to cropland threatens the grassland birds and mammals there…significant negative impact[s] on freshwater ecosystems [and soil and]... fish and other aquatic wildlife [downstream]…

"What’s the solution? There are at least two ways to produce bioenergy without destroying wildlife [and] habitat…One is to use biomass sources that don’t 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…[despite] a lower yield per acre planted…"