Summary
Although increasing utilization of woody biomass from federal lands is seen as a key part of facilitating fuels treatments on federal lands, efforts to increase utilization have met with limited success. Forest Service researchers studying the social dynamics of biomass use on ten sites on federal lands therefore paid particular attention to assessing the reality of persistent conventional wisdoms about what limits utilization. Because accepted truths are not necessarily accurate, they can negatively influence the framing of problems and actions. The researchers found that the conventional wisdoms were reasonably accurate, although the degree to which each impeded progress varied.
