373. We especially need to know more about the fallen tree – soil
interface, probably the single most important habitat and potential niche
for the survival of organisms in drastically altered systems (Maser and Trappe,
1984, pg49-par1).
374. Logging is removing woody duff, which regardless of type or size,
takes considerably longer to decompose than does needle and leaf duff.
Needles, leaves, and small twigs decompose faster than larger woody material
and essential elements are thereby recycled faster in the forest floor. About
140 years are needed for essential elements to cycle in large, fallen trees
and more than 400 years for such trees to become incorporated into the forest
floor; they therefore would interact with the plants and animals of the forest
floor and soil over a long period of forest and stand successional history
(Maser, Tarrant, Trappe and Franklin, 1988, pg37-par_last par).
This long period of time reflects on the time the material removed would
have reduced soil erosion.
375. Logging is removing materials that would have played a key role
as erosion control and animal activity (Page-Dumroese, Harvey, Jurgensen
and Graham, 1991).
376. Logging is removing material that would have performed many functions
ranging from soil protection to wildlife and microbial habitat. The
management of CWD is critical for maintaining functioning ecosystems (Graham,
Harvey, Jurgensen, Jain, Tonn and Page-Dumroese, 1994).
377. Logging is removal of CWD that would have become incorporated
into the surface soil horizon, as freezing and thawing cycles would have
moved it into the soil. Some of the material could have also been covered
as soil moved downhill.
Logging is removing a large part of CWD that in the advanced stages of decay
could have been an active part of the soil system as soil wood.
In fact: Because CWD is an important component of a functioning ecosystem,
a portion of this material must be maintained. As the demand for forest products
and the ability to utilize more fiber increases, less material is being left
after timber harvesting or after salvage operations. These operations, in
combination with past practices of slash disposal and site preparation, have
reduced organic material in the forest floor, making CWD management critical
(Harvey and others 1987). Consequently, recommendations for maintaining CWD
for different ecosystems and forest types are needed (Graham, Harvey, Jurgensen,
Jain, Tonn and Page-Dumroese, 1994).
378. Symplastless wood is also the dominant store of organic matter
in stream ecosystems (Harmon et al. 1986); as such, it is an important source
of essential element and organic matter input. Symplastless wood traps leaf
and duff within aquatic systems, which extends the length of time this material
remains and provides essential elements through decomposition (Triska and
Cromack 1979; Harmon et al. 1986). Symplastless wood provides physical structure
to the ecosystem and fills such roles as sediment storage (Wilford 1984),
protecting the forest floor from mineral soil erosion and mechanical disturbance
during harvesting activities. It ameliorates the affects of cold air drainage
on plants, helps stabilize slopes, and minimizes soil erosion (Maser et al.
1988). Symplastless wood provides elevated germination platforms with reduced
duff fall accumulation and relatively consistent moisture regimes (Harmon
et al. 1986; Maser et al. 1988; Caza 1993; D.F. Fraser, pers. comm., 1995).
In stream ecosystems it protects stream banks from erosion and maintains
channel stability (Triska and Cromack 1979; Sedell et al. 1988). Features
that influence the ability of CWD to fulfill these functions include size
(length and diameter), whether roots are still attached, orientation, degree
of burial, and proportion of the piece that remains submerged (Sedell et
al. 1988) (Voller and Harrison, 1998).
379. Conclusion: What purpose and need is there, that the function
of soil protection and churning with respect to forest (system) health go
unobserved has it is in the Painter Run Windthrow Salvage Project. Claims
that system health will increase by this product – processes – function being
removed, is absurd. What it clearly shows, is there is a purpose and
a need to correct past false promise based treatments, which are still being
used as a foundation for treatments proposed and approved in the Painter
Run Windthrow Salvage Project. Sound science, with respect to system
health needs to be considered in order to protect this once fertile forest,
i.e., including but not limited too – animals and plants as well as fungi
diversity and their connections and functions.
What need and purpose is there to remove materials that would have functioned
for more than 200 years and when removed the system would have to recover
and then take at least 100 – 200 years to replace the mass which than would
take 200 or more years to function functions as CWD? That would only
be true is the system was growing back just the way it was before harvest.
Data shows that it not.
380. Something to think about: By removing trees in the Painter
Run Windthrow Salvage Project future uprooting and churning, will be severely
reduced.
The uprooting of trees lifts and mixes soil of the once fertile forest, an
important ecological processes. In some areas soil churning by the
woody roots of wind thrown trees retards development in the soil of impervious
layers of mineral deposits, known as iron pan. Without these processes,
standing pools of water would eventually produce swampy forest sites (Franklin,
Shugart and Harmon, 1987, pg 551).
381. When it comes to ecological stages of trees and their importance
with respect to forest health, in scooping, the USFS replies we do not foster
those ideas or concepts here. Here being the timber sale project.
What parts and processes of the system do they foster?