Michel Labrecque

I am interested in the willows, trees and shrubs that grow very rapidly. We could use them for bioenergy: using plants that grow fast to harvest wood and use it to make energy. Harvesting wood is called ligniculture.

In Canada, a third of the arborescent plants are willows. It's a genre of plant very abundant in our climates. It was only logical to exploit that plant... It grows well here! And willows adapt very well to badly drained soils, soils that are not exploited by agriculture, so we do not compete for the agricultural lands.

We can also use the rapid growth of willows to make sound barriers, and in phytoremediation: the decontamination of polluted soils by using plants.