The average time it takes a hardwood to reach a decent size is 30-40 years. Which means you have to plant 18,250 acres of trees each year for 30-40 years to make it “sustainable” before you can go back and harvest your 50 acres a day crop again.
My comment was tongue-in-cheek. The 2-stroke chain saws used to cut down the forests to make pellets for the biomass power plant probably create more carbon emissions than a natural gas power plant with equivalent output to the biomass power plant. Wood is a low density power source.
More simply, if you harvest 50 acres per day, you have to plant 50 acres per day. Generally, if the terrain is suited for rapid harvest, it is suited for rapid replanting, esp. with modern techniques.
The US Forest Service reports our minimum forestation as 721,000,000 acres around 1920. Then the forests of the US made slight gains through much of the rest of the 20th century, apparently decreased somewhat from 1990 to 2010, and recovered about 0.03% annually from 2010-2020. The US Forest Service reported total US forestation as 766,000,000 acres in 2012.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forests_of_the_United_States
People have a “thing” about clear cutting, but, in some cases it is the best bet to achieve rapid regrowth of desirable species. In other cases, selective harvesting is best. (Can vary from individual selection to “patches”.)
I would think hardwoods are NOT best for large scale wood-for-fuel. Although... I’ve been fairly impressed with how fast genetically selected walnut trees can grow in good conditions.
Disclaimer: My Dad was a Forestry Prof. who did a lot of research, “extension service” consulting, etc. Degrees in Forest Management, Forest Ecology, and Forest Genetics (did a lot with those walnut trees back in the day!) Never was very worried about US and Canadian lumber / paper / etc. companies, as they typically replanted as much or more than they harvested. And areas like the Shawnee National Forest and the Hoosier National Forest (two of his old stomping grounds) are almost entirely reforested farmland. He did considerable work with recovery of strip mine lands, too. His bigger concern was invasive species (diseases, insects, and plants).
18,250 acres equals less than 30 square miles, which isn’t much in the scheme of things. You could carve out that amount of land in most of the South and no one would notice. Something else to remember is that most trees on privately held land are planted to be cut down.