🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <26731@mindlink.bc.ca> Steve_Vestergaard@mindlink.bc.ca (Steve Vestergaard) writes:
>A pet peeve of mine is the comparison between clearcutting and a forest fire.
>Many trees (Douglas Fir with thick bark) survive forest fires.  Snags hold
>the top soil together and provide homes for birds and insects and shade for
>new trees.  They provide nutrition for new seedlings.
_____________
The survival rate of Douglas-fir from fire is variable and depends on the
type and strength of the fire.  Very hot fires can easily damage
Douglas-fir, and sustained ground fires which burn through the forest
floor, or crown fires, can easily kill the tree.  The fact remains that
Douglas-fir is a shade intolerant tree on the cost and without disturbance
will die out and be replaced by other species.  Fires that kill 98% of a
Douglas-fir forest will damn near ensure the regeneration of the species,
as the remaining adults act as seed trees.  This is part of the ecological
adaptation that furthers the reproductive success of this species.

-Snags provide some structure to the soil but the decay of root systems in
stumps and in snags would be similar, so your point is not valid.
-Snags do provide habitat for birds and insects but this habitat can be 
provided by adjacent uncut forest.  Snags can also be left in clearcuts--
the government currently requires them to be felled for safety reasons. 
-Snags, by their very nature, provide little shade.  In fact, inmost
coastal forests, shade is precisely what hinders forest regeneration.  90%
of the mineral nutrition in trees is stored in the needles and passes to
understory vegetation or out of the site after logging.  Snags serve to
provide "food" in that they retain moisture as rotting logs ans add to
the structural stability of the soil.

>In a clearcut, roads are driven deep into the wilderness and heavy equipment
>chews into the forest.
_____________
Coastal grapple yarding or high-lead yarding requires the building of 80%
fewer roads than in selection logging systems, an magnitudes fewer
disturbance to forest soils.

>Even though illegal, it is common for logging to
>occur right up to creek beds, which become choked with debris.  The fish are
>directly exposed to the sun.
______________
If the creeks are choked with debris, the fish must be hiding in the shade
under the debris?

Logging to the edge of a stream may be necessary to reduce the
accumulation of debris in the stream due to windthrow.  It is not illegal
to log to the edge of a stream if leave strips are not mandated by the PHSP.

>Rain can wash away all the top soil, exposing
>bare rock on the mountain side.  Pesticides and herbicides are applied to
>sites which scar entire mountain sides.  Wind wisks across the exposed
>grassland these unprotected seedlings are supposed to survive in.
_____________
I've just had the nagging feeling that you forgot to add the smileys. 
What do you mean, scar?  This is too much like vague rhetoric to respond to.

>It is possible to reforest and it is possible to minimize man's impact.  But
>I find it presumptious when a forester claims a clearcut is the same as a
>forest fire.
______________
Many of the ecosystem responses are similar.  Some are different.  In most
cases the differences are closer to insignificant than extreme.



-- 
Robert Froese  VE7MOQ
taganov biogeocoenose approach                  "Clearcutting is not a Crime"
taganov@unixg.ubc.ca