15 July 2014 – Western Forester Newsletter
Maintaining the productive capacity of forest soils is a potential concern in regions where harvesting or displacement of forestresidual biomass, or “logging debris,” may occur. Understanding the effects of removing this primarily branch and needle material is critical to assessing the sustainability of commercial forestry and biomassenergy systems. A primary source of uncertainty arises from the removal of carbon and other nutrients present in the biomass, as well as from trafficking of heavy equipment during collection of the material. Could these practices be detrimental to long-term soil productivity of managed forest ecosystems?