Environmental applications of poplars and willows

Working Party on Environmental Applications of Poplars and Willows

Officers of the Working Party are the following:

Report from 23^rd Session

During the 23^rd Session, the Working Party held two technical meetings.

The Working Party purpose is to better share the knowledge and technology on the implementation of cost-effective environmental applications of Poplars and Willows to contribute to sustainable livelihoods and rural development. Within the scope of site and landscape improvement the Working Party includes ecosystem services, urban and rural amenity, combating desertification and salinization, shelterbelts and windbreaks, riparian bank and slope stabilization and soil rehabilitation/restoration. Within the scope of phytoremediation of polluted soils and waters, the Working Party includes buffer zones, contaminated sites, wastewater treatment/management and organic waste management.

The main achievements for the 2004-2007 period included: 

• Conducted three technical, inter-Working Party meetings in Sweden and Estonia (May 2005), Northern Ireland (May 2006) and Canada (June 2007);
• Contributed to the Environmental Applications Chapter in the book “Poplars and Willows in the World”;
• Prepared promotional poster and leaflet in English, French, Spanish and Italian; and
• Upgraded and updated the Working Party portal on the IPC website.

 The programme of action for the next four years included:

• Conduct two inter-Working Party meetings to consider topics not addressed in previous meetings, prior to the 24^th Session of  IPC:
  • the first to coincide with IUFRO’s International Poplar Symposium meeting, Orvieto, Italy, September 2010;
  • the second, venue and date to be confirmed;
• Reorganize and rationalize the Environmental Applications web portal including revision of case studies, directory of specialists and institutions by April 2009;
• Prepare information notes to introduce and explain “state-of-the-art” applications of Poplars and Willows in slope stabilization/erosion control and waste water management by September 2010; and
• Prepare information notes on two other topics (to be decided) before the 24^th Session of the IPC in 2012. 

Recommendations to the IPC Secretariat included: 

• Retain the scope of the Working Party on Environmental Applications as is;
• Planned technical meetings should retain a strong field visit component, jointly with other Working Parties;
• Material on the Working Party web pages should be expanded with contributions from more participants with broader geographic coverage;
• Future emphasis should be on topics not already addressed; and
• Wastewater treatment and re-use technology using Poplars and Willows should be encouraged for their economic and environmental benefits.

  
The most recent meeting of the Working Party was held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from 5 to 8 June 2007

What are environmental uses?

Environmental Applications can be defined as actions which employ particular qualities of poplar and willow to achieve specified objectives while the crop is growing, rather than after harvest. The characteristics being employed by environmental uses include rapid growth, high nutrient uptake, uptake and tolerance of heavy metals, ability to grow in poor soils, rapidly developing and dense root structures, in some varieties an ability to take up large quantities of water, while in others the ability to tolerate drought, and so on. These characteristics are not specific only to poplar, but poplar and willow display these attributes very strongly compared with most other tree species.
Examples of activities which could be considered as environmental uses include:

• Buffer zones/riparian planting: Water course and irrigation canal stabilisation
• Phytoremediation (e.g. phytoextraction, phytovolatilisation):
  Soil chemistry: - metals, hydrocarbons, organics
  Soil physics - structural integrity and organic matter
  Water - wastewater, sewage effluent, landfill leachates
  Use of treated water waste in arid and semi-arid temperate zones Containment of contaminants
• Geoengineering: Stream bank revetment, roadside engineering, slope stabilisation
• Shelterbelts: Viticulture, horticulture, aquaculture, snow and sand fences
• Urban and peri-urban forestry: In arid and semi-arid temperate zones where W&P often are dominant
• Bioenergy: Specifically grown for such and used for direct combustion (e.g. in district heating plants, small-scale pellet stoves), co-firing with coal, gasification, etc.
• Others: Carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat, agroforestry, social benefits from green space, landscape planning

It is proposed at the present time that environmental benefits which are not specifically attributable to poplar and willow, such as carbon sequestration or their use as renewable fuel will not be considered a particular priority within the working party. These attributes will be considered as general benefits by all the IPC working parties.

Background to creation of working party

A proposal was put forward at the 21st Session of the International Poplar Commission in Portland, Oregon, September 2000, that a new Working Party be established to bring together information concerning the environmental uses of poplar and willow. This was due to the high level of interest in, and significant number of papers and posters presented at the conference which considered non-traditional systems of crop production involving objectives other than timber or fibre production alone. The topics covered included water quality protection by the use of riparian buffer zones, phytoremediation of industrially contaminated land and treatment of nutrient rich waste water.
Prof. Kurth Perttu of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Drusilla Riddell-Black of Lupus Science, UK were asked by the Session to take on the role of Chair and Technical Secretary respectively, and, determine, through the use of meetings and other communication whether there was sufficient interest in the topic area to merit a new Working Party. To this end, meetings were held in July 2001 in the UK and in Sweden during the Union of International Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO) in August 2002. These were reported to the IPC Executive Committee and the new working party was given the go ahead in June 2003. Its formation will be formally ratified at the 22nd Session of the IPC in Chile, November 2004.