Demand for bioenergy sourced from woody biomass is projected to increase; however, the expansion and deployment of short rotation woody crop (SRWC) systems has been constrained by high production costs and sluggish market acceptance due to quality and consistency issues in first-generation harvesting systems. �Harvesting accounts for about 30% of the delivered cost in SRWC systems such as willow and poplar; harvesting and transport combined can account for 45-60% of delivered costs.� The objective of this work was to evaluate and improve a single-pass cut-and-chip harvester system based on a standard New Holland FR-9000 series forage chopper with a dedicated 130FB short rotation coppice header using local chip collection systems over a 3-year project. �Harvests have been evaluated over the course of the project culminating with two commercially-sized willow harvests in central New York State.� Harvester throughput has improved over the course of the project from 15 to 70 Mgwet hr-1 while harvester-related down time has decreased from 74% to below 10%.� Results indicate the harvester is capable of providing consistent, predictable throughput over a wide range of standing biomass up to 90 Mgwet ha-1.� Locally sourced collection systems, if properly scaled, should be able to support harvesting activities, but require further study. �Increases in effective material capacity and decreases in down time have reduced harvesting costs for SRWC by 30 � 40% over the past three years.� Future efforts to reduce harvesting system costs should focus on optimizing the collection and delivery system and making incremental harvester improvements.