Re: Salvaging - A Closer Look


"D. Staples" <forester66@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:rtGdnX6WRuI2_fHVnZ2dnUVZ_uWdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Alright yard man, tell us, what would you do with a tract where bark
beetles had destroyed the stand? Other than dissect the trees for what
ever use you would have for cutting up thousands of trees killed by the
beetles? Just let it stand to rot at its own pace. completely ignoring
the right of a land owner to restore his land to production, other than
brush?

You are an ignorant, uneducated fool. You pimp Shigo's work and use
others work as your own, seems you ignore the fact that some of us are
educated in forest management, and not in ridiculous claims on
"dissection", Shigo meters, and the rest of which you have not the
slightest clue.

Give up your attorney's name, you need to be addressed in court. It is
ignorant fools such as yourself that combine lack of education with false
environmental doctrine that has been disproved for decades and has led to
the decline of private lands..

You need to spend more time across the street in the county hospital.
Don Staples - Consulting Salvage Hog
http://www.livingston.net/dstaples/Services/salvage.htm

3 of 16

Tornado's And Salvaging

Note: the Silviculture mentioned with restoration - I will use the
definition for salvaging from a website from a recognized consulting
forester in Texas, which I would assume is a forestry industry standard.

"Salvage and restoration. There comes a time when nature just does not
cooperate with the best of management efforts. At that time you may have to
salvage whats left, and start anew. Salvage is a very different sales effort
for forest products. Usually, the sales material is damaged, dead, or
dying. Finding a market for this material can be tricky, and incomes low.
But, best to move the material, get it out of the way for future work. Take
what income you can from the salvage, and set it aside for planting the
site."

I accept the person's definition, however, I disagree that you can plant a
forest as well as the statement that you may have to remove what is left,
which in this case would be the old growth conditions (Tionesta). I use the
Tionesta Scenic Area in the Allegheny National Forest as a control. It had
a tornado go through in around 1986 and most recently had a blow down. As
far as I know nothing has been removed and all ecological stages of trees
exist. I did soil sampling in that area in the rhizoplane.

Elements, nutrients and food defined: Food is a substance that provides and
energy source, mostly. Nutrient is a substance that provides an energy
source, elements, and other substances essential for life, in types and
amounts that can provide a healthy life. Fertilizer is a substance that
provides elements, as salts mostly, or in bonded forms, that require
microorganisms to alter to forms that can be absorbed by plants. We cannot
and do not feed plants. We add essential elements at Keslick And Son.
Trees manufacture their own food and they do not absorb a nutrient or food
from the soil. We add essential elements.

If we could feed trees, we would take away the major job of the sun! People
who say "plant food" are ignorant about photosynthesis.

In other words: Foods are substances that contain an energy source mostly,
and may contain some elements, and other substances. The main part of food
is the energy source. There are junk foods, fatty foods, and healthy foods.
There are many diet books telling you about healthy foods. Animals can
absorb an energy source. Plants cannot absorb an energy source. fertilizers
are not plant foods. Fertilizers provide elements essential for growth of
plants. The elements are part of salts, usually, that ionize in water.
Ions are charged particles; anions, negative, and cations, positive. Plants
"make" carbohydrates by trapping the light energy of the sun in a process
called photosynthesis. Sad that so many people who work with plants do not
know this. They call fertilizers plant food. Very sad.



What tornados do not do, verses doing the following after a tornado. In
other words what would salvaging wood from a tornado swath achieve - I.e.,
not limited too but including -





Salvaging this area would alter the availability in the proper proportions
of the right "STEW" - Space, Temperature, Elements and Water over time. It
is hard for the energy of the sun to optimally make a tree into the most
efficient system on earth when the right amount of essential elements and
water has been removed.



Salvaging this area would remove required substrate for a decomposition
process where fallen trees release essential elements for microbial and
plant growth (Maser, Tarrant, Trappe and Franklin, 1988, pg37-par1).
Thus, salvaging would remove essential elements for microbial and plant
growth. Elements other than nitrogen such as calcium and magnesium also
accumulate in decomposing woody substrate. (Maser and Trappe, 1984, pg
16-par2)



Salvaging this area would remove woody duff, which regardless of type or
size, takes considerably longer to decompose than needle and leaf duff does.
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 required 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-par1).



Salvaging this area would remove the capacity of the system to accumulate
nitrogen in decaying, fallen trees as well as other significant essential
elements such as calcium and magnesium. Although nitrogen fixation in wood
is modest compared with that occurring in other substrates in forests, the
persistence of decaying wood allows small increments of nitrogen to accrue
over many decades (Maser and Trappe, 1984, pg 16).



Salvaging this area would remove wood that would further decompose which
would undergo changes in other chemical constituents and pH as well as
physical structure. Very old, decayed wood can even become somewhat
humified and leave long lasting substrate resistant to further decay (Maser
and Trappe, 1984, pg 16-par 4).



Salvaging this area would remove trees, which would have been decaying
trees. These trees would have comprised considerable accumulations of mass,
nutrients and elements. (Maser and Trappe, 1984,pg16-par1).



Note: Some of the largest accumulations occur in the unmanaged forest of the
Pacific Northwest. Coarse woody debris can range from 130 to 276 tons per
acre in stands from 100 to more than 1,000 years old. Although here we are
concerned with Douglas fir, neither decaying wood nor research data are
unique to forests of the Pacific Northwest. McFee and Stone (1966) Observed
that decaying wood persisted for more than 100 years in New York and others
pointed out that substantial accumulations of CWD in old-growth forest in
Poland. (Just as Tionesta) These observations evidence the long-term
continuity of decaying trees as structural components in forest (Maser and
Trappe, 1984, pg 16-par1).



Salvaging this area would remove present and future decaying logs on or
which would become a part of the forest floor, which would have been a
reservoir for nutrients as well as essential elements. (Page-Dumroese,
Harvey, Jurgensen and Graham, 1991).



Salvaging this area would remove what would naturally reduce erosion and
affect soil development, store nutrients and water, provide a source of
energy and essential element flow, serve as seedbeds, and provide habitat
for decomposers and heterotrophs (Harmon and Hua, 1991).



Salvaging this area would reduce the pool of stable nutrients. An important
feature of woody debris is that nutrients are released at slower rates than
from fine duff. This slow release allows essential elements to be retained
within the ecosystem until tree production recovers. Timber harvest and
salvage after disturbance reduces this pool of stable essential elements
(Harmon and Hua, 1991).



Salvaging this area would stop the decomposition of logs and other forms of
coarse woody debris which reduce erosion, affect soil development, store
essential elements and water, are a potentially large source of energy
(nutrients - food) and essential elements, serve as a seed bed for plants,
and form an important habitat for fungi and arthropods. Note: Despite
growing recognition that symplastless trees play major roles in ecosystem
function, many aspects of the specific processes involved are poorly
understood. Consider, for example, the importance of CWD in forest
essential element cycles. Aside from nitrogen fixation, few studies have
directly examined the processes responsible for the net changes in essential
element content of decaying wood. The actual proportion of tree nutrition
that is derived from CWD is not known (Kropp, 1982).



Thus, salvaging would increase soil erosion at the time and over time.



Salvaging this area would stop the processes, which would take place between
a fallen tree and its surroundings, which would have increased, as
decomposition would have continued. E.g., the flow of plant and animal
populations, air, water, and essential elements. (Maser and Trappe, 1984,
pg 12-par1). Salvaging kills this system processes by means of disruption
and depletion causing dysfunction.



Salvaging this area would remove structural components of great importance
for forest dynamics and forest biodiversity. The decomposition of trees
removed would have provided an important link in cycling on nutrients and
essential elements in the ecosystem. In addition, many species of plants,
fungi and animals are dependent on symplastless trees for nutrients,
essential elements, habitat or substrate and nesting (Kruys and Jonsson,
1999).



Salvaging this area would remove logs, which would have helped reduce
erosion by forming "a barrier to creeping and raveling soils (Maser and
Trappe, 1984 pg4-par1).



Salvaging this area would increase the loss nutrients and essential elements
from the site. Such spots would have been excellent for the establishment
and growth of vegetation, including tree seedlings. Vegetation would have
been established on and help stabilize this "new soil", and as invertebrates
and small vertebrates would have begun to burrow into the new soil, they
would not only have nutritionally enriched it with their feces and urine but
also constantly mixed it by their burrowing activities (Maser and Trappe,
1984 pg 4-par1-2).



Salvaging this area would remove the habitat, i.e., the would be creations,
of inner space within a log, as it would decompose, which many organisms
such as plant roots, mites, collembolans, amphibians, and small mammals,
must await to enter. The flow of plant and animal populations, air, water,
and nutrients as well as essential elements between fallen tree and its
surrounding would have increased if aging process continued and the area was
not salvaged. (Maser and Trappe, 1984, pg 12).



Salvaging this area would remove the sponge like mass, which would gather
and store moisture and essential elements. Duff fall and throughfall are
major pathways for the flow of essential elements and energy within forests,
they contribute essential elements, nutrients and water to so called rotten
wood. The larger a fallen tree, the more duff it accumulates on its surface
and the more essential element rich moisture it intercepts from the canopy.
The moisture gathers essential elements as it passes through the accumulated
duff and soaks into the fallen tree (Maser and Trappe, 1984, pg 19-par 2).



Salvaging this area would remove CWD, which the associated epiphytic
bryophytes would have acted as both essential element and moisture buffers
for the ecosystems (FEMAT 1993). This buffering would have allowed the slow
release of water and essential elements to surrounding plants. In mature
and old growth coastal forests, a large proportion of western hemlock and
Sitka spruce seedlings germinate and grow on CWD substrates (Harmon and
Franklin 1989; G. Davis, pers. comm., 1994).



Salvaging this area would alter the chemistry of the system. The main
chemical differences among substrates are: (1) nitrogen content; (2) mineral
or ash content-phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium; (3) the carbon
matrix-cellulose, lignin, pentosans and (4) the content of other organic
compounds-waxes, pigments, carbohydrates, fats, resins, phenolic compounds
(Maser and Trappe, 1984 pg11 par 2).



Salvaging this area would alter the amount of nitrogen, however, besides
Nitrogen, Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, and Phosphorus and other essential
elements play key roles in soil, plant and tree health as well as the other
associated living organisms (Page-Dumroese, Harvey, Jurgensen and Graham,
1991).



Salvaging this area would remove initial, optimal and final stages of fallen
trees. Plant - nutrient / essential elements - and the succession of plants
on fallen trees is mediated by changes in essential element availability and
physical properties over time. Three broad phases can be defined: initial,
optimal, final. Early invaders prepare the tree for later colonization by
altering its physical and chemical properties during the initial phase. The
altered tree provides the best substrate for a wide array of organisms
during the optimal phase. Ultimately, the depletion of essential elements
and physical deterioration of the wood during the optimal phase diminish its
value for many organisms, so fewer species inhabit the final phase (Maser
and Trappe, 1984, pg 25-par 5).



Salvaging this area would remove CWD, which has the potential to store a
large amount of carbon in the ecosystem. The role of coarse woody debris in
storing carbon is often overlooked, with only living plants or soil carbon
being considered. Relatively little is known about the formation and rate
of decay of coarse woody debris or the factors controlling these processes,
despite the relevance of this information to the global carbon cycle (Harmon
and Hua, 1991).



Salvaging this area would remove future savings accounts of essential
elements and organic material in the forest soil. The decomposing wood of a
fallen tree serves as the latter (Maser and Trappe, 1984, pg 16-par1).
Elements other than nitrogen such as calcium and magnesium, also accumulate
in decomposing woody substrate. (Maser and Trappe, 1984, pg 16-par2)



Salvaging this area would remove the interactions of fallen trees which
interact with essential element cycling processes in a forest through such
mechanisms as duff fall (freshly fallen or slightly decomposed plant
material from the canopy), throughfall (rain or dew that picks up elements
as it falls through the canopy), nitrogen fixation, and essential element
uptake by plants associated with the fallen trees (Maser and Trappe, 1984,
19-par2).



Salvaging this area would remove opportunities that ground contact by fallen
trees creates for various interactions with the biotic components of soil
and duff. Fungi, for instance, would translocate essential elements within
the soil- system, as both decomposers and root symbionts. Fungi would also
immobilize translocated essential elements and thereby enrich the
decomposing wood substrates they inhabit. In addition, the colonization of
decomposing fallen trees by nitrogen-fixing bacteria permits additional
nitrogen accretion within the decaying wood (Maser and Trappe, 1984, pg
19-par 3).



Salvaging this area would remove the external succession processes and
benefits of CWD, which is related to the changes that take place in the
plant community surrounding a fallen tree (Maser and Trappe, 1984, pg 38-par
1).



Salvaging this area would remove connectors. A fallen tree is a connector
between the successional stages of a community; it would have provided
continuity of habitat from the previous forest through subsequent
successional stages (Maser and Trappe, 1984, pg 38-par 1).



Salvaging this area would remove large, would be, fallen or already fallen
tree, which would have provided a physical link - an essential element
savings account - through time and across successional stages. Because of
its persistence, the log or logs would have provided a long- term, stable
structure on which some animal (both invertebrate and vertebrate)
populations appear to depend on for survival (Maser and Trappe, 1984, pg
38-par 1).



Salvaging this area would remove humus forming materials, which would have
been important in regulating the incorporation of nitrogen into humic
materials. Because of its high cation exchange capacity and slow
decomposition, so called rotten wood, or chemically altered wood, if you
please, can retain available mineral nitrogen from throughfall and
decomposition as well as organic nitrogen compounds mineralized within the
wood chemical matrix (Maser, Tarrant, Trappe and Franklin, 1988, pg40-par2).



Salvaging this area would remove materials, which roots and mycorrhizae, of
plant species that colonize decaying wood, use for its available nitrogen
(Maser, Tarrant, Trappe and Franklin, 1988, pg40-par2).



Salvaging this area would alter humic acids, which slow decomposition
reactions in soils. (Shigo, 1999, pg110-#666)



Salvaging this area would remove materials downed, which would have had a
long-term input of nitrogen fixation.



Salvaging this area would alter a positive attempt of balance of nitrogen in
the ecosystem. Salvaging is removing the long term input by nitrogen
fixation in falling trees as they are being chemically altered by the
succession of microorganisms as well as organisms, which is a highly ordered
arrangement. And by canopy inhibiting lichens, which maintain such input
(Maser, Tarrant, Trappe and Franklin, 1988, pg40-par3).



Salvaging this area would remove of materials that would have had long-term
potential for contributing nitrogen for tree growth as residual lignin and
humus are decomposed (Maser, Tarrant, Trappe and Franklin, 1988, pg41-par1).



Salvaging this area would remove what would be equal to slow release
fertilizer for once fertile forest (Many salts of essential elements over
time). With respect to tree maturity, habitats, both external and internal,
are influenced by tree size - maturity (Internal Regulating System - Dynamic
to Static Mass). An uninterrupted supply of new, immature wood in young
forests decomposes and recycles essential elements and energy rapidly.
Habitats provided by the death of the symplast of young trees are
short-lived and rapidly changing. (E.g., specifically speaking, species of
young trees, which produce protection wood such as heartwood, would have not
formed heartwood). In contrast, the less frequent, more irregular mortality
of the symplast of large trees in old forests is analogous to slow-release
fertilization. (Maser, Tarrant, Trappe and Franklin, 1988,pg44-par2).
Salvaging reduces the amount and quality of humus like materials.



Salvaging this area would remove materials that in time would be decaying
and would have contributed to long-term accumulation of soil organic matter,
partly because the carbon constituents of the future well-decayed wood would
have 80-90 percent residual lignin and humus (Maser, Tarrant, Trappe, and
Franklin, 1988, pg44-par3).



Salvaging this area would remove material that would be incorporated in the
soil and would have aided the establishment of conifer seedlings and
mycorrhizal fungi on dry sites. (Maser, Tarrant, Trappe, and Franklin,
1988, pg44-par3).



Salvaging this area would remove material that in time would have added to
spatial, chemical, and biotic diversity of forest soils, and to the
processes that maintain long-term forest productivity (Maser, Tarrant,
Trappe, and Franklin, 1988. pg44-par3).



I did not intend to address methods or other components of salvaging
processes in this paper, just what is being removed and its chemistry. As
is salvaging within the ANF, machine is used for several treatments (sorry).
Machine entry on an area, which contains trees, reduces diversity because
heavy equipment fragments and scatters class IV and V so called rotten wood.
Habitat diversity declines to a fraction of what had been available,
probably fewer kinds of organisms can thrive. Further, because woody
substrates serve as long-term soil organic material and essential element
reservoirs, increasingly intensive timber management, coupled with shorter
rotations, could significantly alter the role of decaying wood in the
essential element cycling processes (Maser and Trappe, 1984, pg 48-par 1).



Salvaging this area would remove critical material, which would have served
for mycorrhizal fungi, which can colonize logs, presumably using them as
sources of water and essential elements. (Franklin, Cromack, Kermit, et al.
others, 1981).



Salvaging this area would remove a significant factor in essential element
cycling processes (Harmon et al. 1986; Caza 1993). Although the relative
concentration of essential elements in wood and bark is low, much of the
essential elements capital and carbon are stored here because of the large
biomass involved (Harmon et al. 1986; Caza 1993) (Voller and Harrison,
1998).





Salvaging this area would remove symplastless wood, which would have
facilitated a slow release of essential elements, ameliorated leaching, and
provided a growing substrate for bryophytes (Harmon et al. 1986; FEMAT 1993;
Samuelsson et al. 1994) (Voller and Harrison, 1998).





Salvaging this area would remove material that would buffer water and
essential element release from duff and aboveground processes, especially
processes such as nitrogen fixation in aboveground plants such as hepatics
(Harmon et al. 1986; FEMAT 1993; Samuelsson et al. 1994) (Voller and
Harrison, 1998).



Bacteria are very small. They do big things (Shigo, 1999, #216 pg34)



Salvaging this area would remove habitat for free-living bacteria, which in
woody residues and soil wood fix 30-60% of the nitrogen in the forest soil.
In addition, 20% of soil nitrogen is stored in these components (Harvey et
al. 1987). Harmon et al. (1986) reported that CWD accounted for as much as
45% of aboveground stores of organic matter. Symplastless wood in
terrestrial ecosystems is a primary location for fungal colonization and
often acts as refugia for mycorrhizal fungi during ecosystem disturbance
(Triska and Cromack 1979; Harmon et al. 1986; Caza 1993) (Voller and
Harrison, 1998).



Salvaging this area would remove one of the suspected, most important stages
in essential element cycling by the colonization of symplastless wood by
fungi and microbes (Caza 1993); however, these processes are still
relatively poorly understood. In fact soil wood contains a disproportionate
amount of the coniferous non-woody roots or ectomycorrhizae in forests
(Harvey et al. 1987). As one of the dominant sources of organic matter,
salvaging removes symplastless wood, which would have had an important
determinant in soil formation and composition (Caza 1993) (Voller and
Harrison, 1998)



Salvaging this area would remove symplastless wood which would have provided
physical structure to the ecosystem and filled such roles as sediment
storage (Wilford 1984), protecting the forest floor from mineral soil
erosion and mechanical disturbance during harvesting activities (Voller and
Harrison, 1998).



Salvaging this area would remove material that would ameliorate the affects
of cold air drainage on plants, helps stabilize slopes, and minimizes soil
erosion (Maser et al. 1988) (Voller and Harrison, 1998).



Salvaging this area would remove symplastless wood, which would provide
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) (Voller and Harrison,
1998).



Conclusion: The capacity and ability, of CWD, to function as a nutrient and
essential element storehouse, too often goes unobserved such as in
salvaging. Technical reports clearly point out that the long term
continuity of decaying trees are structural components of forests. CWD are
reservoirs for nutrients as well as essential elements for long periods of
time. CWD provides a source of energy and essential element flow. Timber
harvest and salvage after disturbances reduces pool of stable nutrients and
essential elements. Symplastless trees are structural components of great
importance for forest dynamics and forest biodiversity. Many species of
plants, fungi and animals are dependent on symplastless trees for nutrients,
essential elements, habitat or substrate and nesting. The benefits and
their persistence, in the cycling of essential elements and providing
nutrients is a function which contributes to system health and a obligatory
function to operate at a high quality state, i.e., operating about the means
in which is was designed. Therefore the removal of such materials that
would provide a physical link - an essential element savings account -
through time and across successional stages is not indicative or technically
published to be, a treatment, which would protect or increase forest health.
In all honestly, it will reduce protection thus forest health as well.



End 3 of 16 More to come.


--
Sincerely,
John A. Keslick, Jr.
Consulting Tree Biologist
http://home.ccil.org/~treeman
and www.treedictionary.com
Beware of so-called tree experts who do not understand tree biology.
Storms, fires, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions keep reminding us
that we are not the boss.
Some people will buy products they do not understand and not buy books that
will give them understanding.


.

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