LOS ANGELES — The Wilds, a wildlife conservation center located in southeastern Ohio, will be home to a study of the effect on the entire ecosystem of growing and harvesting biomass and nonfood energy crops.
The collaboration, which includes Ohio State University and the company Rentech, will be conducted on reclaimed mine lands at The Wilds in Cumberland, Ohio.
Marginal land
The study will also examine the utilization of marginal landscapes for the production of perennial, nonfood based biofuels, and the potential for bio-sequestration of carbon and other environmental services on reclaimed land.
“We understand the global issues regarding the use of food crops for fuel,” said Nicole Cavender, director of restoration ecology at the Wilds. “The exploration of growing nonfood biomass on lands otherwise not suitable for agriculture may lead us in an alternative direction with a positive, global outcome.”
