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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