The political ecology of pulp and paper: Economic redevelopment and environmental contingency.

This paper examines economic redevelopment in a small Northern New England city historically dependent on the pulp and paper industry. After a century as the economic base of the community, the city's pulp mill was closed and dismantled in 2007, marking the end of the community's identity as a papermaking center. However, the environmental legacy of pulp production poses a number of challenges to redevelopment efforts. In this paper, I focus on data from the US Forest Service Forest Inventory Analysis, using a first-world political ecology approach to understanding the relationship between the historical political economy, the contemporary structure of the surrounding forest, and the community's options for the future. More than a century of forest management for pulpwood production has left the surrounding region with a relatively young forest comprised of smaller-diameter and lower-value timber stands. Partly as a result of the structure of the resource base, rather than higher value-added forest products manufacturing, large-scale biomass energy production has emerged as the primary new wood-based industry in the study community. Coupled with shrinking local and regional markets for pulpwood, management for biomass promises to further reshape the forest. However, it is not yet clear if emerging biomass markets will result in improved stand quality or an even younger forest--or with what implications for the sustainability and functioning of the forest ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]