10. Logging – Insects – Bonogens / Endangered Species

326.  Note: Also see -
6. Logging – Fungi Diversity – Mycorrhizae – Bacteria / Endangered Species.

327.  Many insects, fungi, bacteria, and other organisms are thought to be harmful, yet very few of them are (SHIGO, 1999).  The insects and microorganisms have a job to do on earth. Many are "clean up" experts such as a fungus that parasitizing another mushroom fruiting body of another fungus (SHIGO, 1999 - Pg 105 ).  These organisms break down dead organisms to release or recycle elements essential for new life. Some organisms attack others that no longer have a defense system. A few attack living organisms that are healthy.  In spite of abiotic destructive forces and biotic agents such as insects, bacteria, and fungi, humans still rank as the major destructive agent for trees in forests and cities. Ignorance of tree biology is a major cause of this (SHIGO 1999).

328.  Something to consider: Certainly our knowledge of biological processes and their interactions within forest is incomplete, and we know too little about the cumulative effect of a wide range of stresses on the ecosystem. But integrative research, at the ecosystem level shows clearly that the many processes operating within forest inter- connect in important ways. Further, diversity of microscopic and macroscopic plant and animal species is a key factor in maintaining these processes (Maser, Tarrant, Trappe and Franklin, 1988, pg1-par2). 

329.  Logging is removing present and future food sources of  species of animals such as woodpeckers, small mammals, aninsectivorousd bears which forage on insects dwelling in CWD (Maser et al. 1979; Maser and Trappe 1984; Samuelsson et al. 1994) (Tables 7.3 Id 7.4)  (Voller and Harrison, 1998).      

330.  Logging is removing present and future persistent sources besides nitrogen, other essential elements such as Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, and Phosphorus and other essential elements play key roles in soil, plant and tree health as well as the associated other living organisms (Page-Dumroese, Harvey, Jurgensen and Graham, 1991).  [See: 4. Coarse woody debris – Nutrients and Essential Elements]

331.  Logging is removing present and future higher plants that would have become established on the so-called rotten wood.  Various mites, insects, slugs, and snails would have fed on the higher plants.  These plants would have also provided cover for animals, as would have the lichens, mosses, and liverworts that colonize fallen trees in decay class IV (Maser and Trappe, 1984, pg 29-par 4).    

332.  Logging is removing present and future persistent material that wood-boring beetles, termites, and carpenter ants would have produced channels (in heart wood or more specifically discolored wood) that would have provided passageways for roots.  The fruiting bodies of the mycorrhizal fungi, produced from energy supplied by the host plant, can also be a major source of food for insects, arthropods, and small mammals such as the California red-backed vole (Maser and Trappe, 1984, pg 29-par 4). 

333.  Logging is removing present and future persistent mini ecosystems within the forest.  Because of all of the internal activity, the longer a fallen tree rests on the forest floor, the greater the development of its internal surface area.  Most internal surface area results from biological activity the cumulative affects of which not only increase through time but also act synergistically – insect activity promotes decomposition through microbial activity that encourages the establishment and rooting of plants (Maser and Trappe, 1984, pg 12-par2 ).    

334.  Logging breaks many connections and processes of the ecosystem.  E.g., decayed heartwood (of heartwood forming trees) splits into chunks, (i.e., if not removed or shall I say if not killed); roots grow down the resulting cracks as well as along insect channels. 
Thus logging is removing shelter which invertebrates – from minute mites to centipedes, millipedes, slugs, and snails – would have found in these openings and passage along them, i.e., the cracks over many years (Maser and Trappe, 1984, pg 17-par 4). 

335.  Logging is removing present as well as future cover for vertebrates such as salamanders, shrews, shrew moles, and voles, which would have found cover under debris of sloughed bark and so called rotten wood alongside the class IV tree; they also would have found the so called rotten wood on the underside of the tree crumbly enough for digging tunnels or burrows. Fungi and other microorganisms abound on the wood itself as well as on the new substrates offered by the feces of animals (Maser and Trappe, 1984, pg 17-par 4). 

336.  Logging is removing present and future insect altered wood, one example we know of, particularly of Douglas – fir, when in late classes II through IV would have found itself frequented by one salamander known as the clouded salamander.
Logging is removing present and future processes, where wood eating insects, would be excavating spaces in large fallen trees which clouded salamanders are often found under the loose bark.  In fact, young clouded salamanders show a striking affinity for bark (McKenzie and Storm 1970).  It has been found twenty feet up in standing trees (Maser and Trappe, 1984,pg34-par6).    

337.  Logging is the killing of class 1 trees, which would have, for an example had provided readily available essential elements that would have supported communities of opportunistic colonizers.  As decay would have proceeded, water-holding capacity would have increased.  Organisms with more sophisticated enzyme systems would have succeeded the rapidly growing opportunists, and decay would have continued (Maser and Trappe, 1984,pg37-par2).  

338.  Logging is removing materials that could have, on the once fertile forest floor, greatly influenced subsequent diversity of both external and internal plant and animal habitats.  The decomposing fallen trees would have provided a changing spectrum of habitats over many decades’ even centuries.  It would have provided diversity within a given successional stages of a forest (Maser, Tarrant, Trappe, and Franklin, 1988, pg40-par3).

339.  Logging removes materials that would have allowed organisms to gain entrance to the interior, which would consume and breakdown wood cells and fibers.  Thus, logging removes the would be creation of internal spaces which larger organisms such as mites, collembolans, spiders, millipedes, centipedes, amphibians and small mammals must await before they can enter.  Logging removes the processes of flow of plant and animal populations, air, water and essential elements that would have been created by a fallen tree and its surroundings which would have increased as decomposition would have continued  (Maser, Tarrant, Trappe, and Franklin, 1988, pg42 Last par).

340.  Logging is removing materials that would have contributed to long-term accumulation of soil organic matter, partly because the carbon constituents of well-decayed wood would have been 80-90 percent residual lignin and humus.  The materials being removed would have created and maintained diversity in forest communities (Maser, Tarrant, Trappe, and Franklin, 1988, pg44-par3).

341.  Conclusion:  I have learned that logging does not appear to increase the health of insects and other bonogens and or endangered species.   What purpose and need is there, that the capacity and ability, of CWD, to function as an habitat for insects, thus a food source for insectivorous species of animals such as woodpeckers, small mammals and bears be removed by the process of logging?

342.  What purpose and need is there, that the capacity and ability, of CWD, to function as a changing spectrum of habitats over many decades’ even centuries be removed?

343.  What purpose and need is there, that the capacity and ability, of CWD, to function as diversity within a given successional stage and form a physical-chemical link through the many successional stages of a forest go unobserved in the Painter Run Windthrow Salvage Project?


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