I read an interesting article about a group of loggers operating solely with solar and horse power. They ran electric chain saws (charged one set of batteries and took a charged set with them to the woods each day). They dragged the trees out by horse. Doing the math, they made just as much money as the folks logging with oil.

I’m not suggesting that horses, or animals, would be a good way to transport. But what if there were solar powered systems that could cut and chip/compact the willows in place and then transportation out could be done with a combination of solar and liquid fuel?

Get the price right and individuals could own/run small harvesting operations and sell their product on to processors.

There’s been talk about mulching them and processing them into “bricks.” There’s been talk about starting a small pellet mill. There’s been lots of talk, but nobody knows the most cost effective way to deal with them. The benefits of sustainable alternative heating fuel supplies, combined with the benefits of habitat recovery could be substantial. Perhaps the folks at Cornell have some ideas that could help.