Salvage logging, ecosystem processes, and biodiversity conservation

    Authors

    D. B. Lindenmayer;R. F. Noss

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Conserv. Biol.

    Keywords

    forest management; human disturbance; natural disturbance; SAND-PINE SCRUB; FOREST MANAGEMENT-PRACTICES; HIGH-INTENSITY WILDFIRE; STAND-REPLACEMENT FIRE; MONTANE ASH FORESTS; COARSE WOODY DEBRIS; BOREAL; FOREST; BIRD COMMUNITIES; SILVICULTURAL TREATMENTS; NATURAL DISTURBANCE; Biodiversity Conservation; Ecology; Environmental Sciences

    Abstract

    We summarize the documented and potential impacts of salvage logging-a form of logging that removes trees and other biological material from sites after natural disturbance, Such operations may reduce or eliminate biological legacies, modify rare postdisturbance habitats, influence populations, alter community composition, impair natural vegetation recovery, facilitate the colonization of invasive species, alter soil properties and nutrient levels, increase erosion, modify hydrological regimes and aquatic ecosystems, and alter patterns of landscape heterogeneity. These impacts can be assigned to three broad and interrelated effects: (1) altered stand structural complexity; (2) altered ecosystem processes and functions; and (3) altered populations of species and community composition. Some impacts may be different from or additional to the effects of traditional logging that is not preceded by a large natural disturbance because the conditions before, during, and after salvage logging may differ from those that characterize traditional timber harvesting. The potential impacts of salvage logging often have been overlooked, partly because the processes of ecosystem recovery after natural disturbance are still poorly understood and partly because potential cumulative effects of natural and human disturbance have not been well documented. Ecologically informed policies regarding salvage logging are needed prior to major natural disturbances so that when they occur ad hoc and crisis-mode decision making can be avoided. These policies should lead to salvage-exemption zones and limits on the amounts of disturbance-derived biological legacies (e.g., burned trees, logs) that are removed where salvage logging takes place. Finally, we believe new terminology is needed. The word salvage implies that something is being saved or recovered, whereas from an ecological perspective this is rarely the case.

    Journal Title

    Conservation Biology

    Volume

    20

    Issue/Number

    4

    Publication Date

    1-1-2006

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    949

    Last Page

    958

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000239545500007

    ISSN

    0888-8892

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