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| Last updated at 12:41 AM on 28/07/07 |
Willow trees new biofuel option for P.E.I. farmers 
LINDSAY CARROLL
The Guardian
People call Cheryl Hendrickson the ‘Willow lady’ because she is in charge of the largest commercial willow supply in Canada, and she wants to spread the word about the benefits of farming willows.
As the president of Land Saga, Hendrickson said farmers on P.E.I should consider willows as biofuel. They benefit the environment and decrease the cost of heating homes, she said during a workshop on bioenergy earlier this year in Charlottetown.
“I came into the nursery business because of remediation work; poplars and willows can help clean contaminants (from the soil,’’ she said.
After five years of growth, willows get rid of all pollution from petroleum and diesel fuels in the soil, said Hendrickson.
The farm she runs is in Guelph, Ont. In the 1990s, the government dismantled the only farm which had existed, moving it to Syracuse, which destroyed the market in Canada, she said.
“We lost that heritage in Canada and we were world leaders.”
Hendrickson would like to build that market back up.
Besides being good for the soil, willow woodchips will cut the costs of heating homes as a new kind of biofuel.
She said it could save homeowners as much as $6,000 a year in heating if they decide to switch to willow chips from oil.
Hendrickson said willow farming should succeed well on P.E.I.
“Based on some of the people I’ve talked to, the land here on certain parts of the Island is suited to it.”
It would be a welcome change for some farmers as well, she said.
“I think that anything that provides an alternative to potatoes, if there is a market for it, would be an added benefit.”
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28/07/07
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