2006 Conference Report

The Seminar, “Pelleting: From Field and Forest to Bio-Fuel” on Feb. 7th drew approx. 150 enthusiastic participants. Main speakers were Dr. Jerry Cherney of Cornell University, Peter Barney of Cornell Cooperative Extension in St Lawrence County, Jock Gill of the Vermont Grass Energy Collaborative and Biomass Commodities Corp, and Charles Niebling of New England Wood Pellets LLC. A group of panelists talked about local experiences in making and using pellets and several kinds of pellets, pellet stoves and furnaces were on display.

The Pelleting Seminar was a follow-up activity of “Fuel the Future: Strategic Summit and Exposition on Bioenergy and Rural Economic Development”, which took place June 21-23, 2006 at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. Over 150 people attended the Summit, representing economic developers, elected government, state and national agencies, forest products industries, agriculture, environmental organizations and academia. The final report is available in pdf format.

Other follow-up activities to implement summit recommendations included a hands-on “How to Make Biodiesel” workshop was held in October ‘06; and a “Growing Biodiesel Feedstocks” seminar for farmers took place in early November ‘06. Please watch this site for further announcements.