Salvage Logging and Its Ecological Consequences

David B. Lindenmayer, Philip J. Burton, Jerry F. Franklin

• Publisher: Island Press
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781610911467
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Science General
• Index: Biological Sciences

Salvage logging—removing trees from a forested area in the wake of a catastrophic event such as a wildfire or hurricane—is highly controversial. Policymakers and those with an economic interest in harvesting trees typically argue that damaged areas should be logged so as to avoid "wasting" resources, while many forest ecologists contend that removing trees following a disturbance is harmful to a variety of forest species and can interfere with the natural process of ecosystem recovery.Salvage Logging and Its Ecological Consequences brings together three leading experts on forest ecology to explore a wide range of issues surrounding the practice of salvage logging. They gather and synthesize the latest research and information about its economic and ecological costs and benefits, and consider the impacts of salvage logging on ecosystem processes and biodiversity. The book examines• what salvage logging is and why it is controversial
• natural and human disturbance regimes in forested ecosystems
• differences between salvage harvesting and traditional timber harvesting
• scientifically documented ecological impacts of salvage operations
• the importance of land management objectives in determining appropriate post-disturbance interventionsBrief case studies from around the world highlight a variety of projects, including operations that have followed wildfires, storms, volcanic eruptions, and insect infestations. In the final chapter, the authors discuss policy management implications and offer prescriptions for mitigating the impacts of future salvage harvesting efforts.Salvage Logging and Its Ecological Consequences is a "must-read" volume for policymakers, students, academics, practitioners, and professionals involved in all aspects of forest management, natural resource planning, and forest conservation.

Chapter 1

The Challenge of Large-scale Natural Disturbances and Salvage Logging

Wildfires and other large-scale forest disturbances figure prominently in forested regions of the world. These disturbances (nominally “forces of nature”) are events with a high public profile because of their threats to human life and values, occurrence in famous places, and their spatial scale. Peri-urban areas of major metropolitan regions, such as Los Angeles and Sydney, regularly experience intense wildfire. There have been many widely publicized and large-scale disturbances, such as the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, the Yellowstone fires in 1988, well-known hurricanes such as Hugo (1989) and Katrina (2005), the Columbus Day windstorm of 1964, and the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004.

Large natural disturbances have occurred recently in many regions of the world. Wildfires burned nearly 10 million hectares in a single year (1997–98) in Indonesia (Food and Agriculture Organization 2001), 7 million hectares in 1995 in Canada (Canadian Council of Forest Ministers 2007), 3 million hectares in the 2002–3 fire season in southeastern Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2004), 2.7 million hectares in 1997 in Mongolia (Food and Agriculture Organization 2001), 2 million hectares in 2000 in the United States, and 800,000 hectares in Mexico in 1998 (Food and Agriculture Organization 2001). European forests experience damage to 35 million cubic meters of wood annually (table 1.1), and impacts of the agents of disturbance are increasing (Schelhaas et al. 2003).

Large and novel disturbances are likely to increase as a consequence of climate change (Hobbs et al. 2006; Westerling et al. 2006). In interior British Columbia, more than 13 million hectares of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) forest have been affected by the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) (British Columbia Ministry of Forests and Range 2006, 2007) (fig. 1.1), and the epidemic of this native pest has spread into neighboring Alberta and could even invade stands of a new host species, jack pine (Pinus banksiana). Such unusual behavior of the mountain pine beetle is believed to be the result of unprecedented expanses of mature pine forest (due to widespread forest fires a century ago and subsequent fire control), coupled with warming winter temperatures and consequent improved survival of overwintering insect broods (Carroll et al. 2004).

TABLE 1.1 Estimated mean annual timber losses (m³/yr) in Europe* from different natural disturbances

Source: Schelhaas et al. (2001) updated to 2006 by M.-J. Schelhaas (personal communication).

Natural and Other Disturbances

Throughout this book we refer to natural disturbances. As is further described in chapter 2, these disruptions are recognized as discrete events in time and place that cause widespread mortality of trees. We distinguish such unplanned disturbances that “nature” generates from scheduled hu-man disturbances of forests, such as timber harvesting, road building, and land clearing for agriculture. Although varying in importance around the world, many or most forest fires in a region may originate from human ignitions, and other disturbances such as landslides can also be induced by human actions. It is debated whether such forests would eventually burn from lightning ignitions anyway, and whether modern rates of human-caused ignitions are more or less than those practiced by indigenous peoples for millennia. Insect populations preying on forest trees may have been introduced from another continent, or may be undergoing exponential growth as a result of increasing temperatures or the loss of predators. The frequency and strength of many weather-related disturbances such as hurricanes seem to be a consequence of global warming induced by fossil fuel consumption, and are expected to continue increasing in the future (Dale et al. 2001). As such, it could be argued that a large proportion of the “natural disturbances” affecting forests have their origin in human activities.

FIGURE 1.1. A landscape in interior British Columbia, Canada, which was recently dominated by lodgepole pine but has been dramatically altered by an epidemic of mountain pine beetle and subsequent salvage logging (photo by David Lindenmayer).

Salvage Logging

Salvage logging is a common response to natural forest disturbances. Salvage logging is defined by the Society of American Foresters (Helms 1998, 158) as “the removal of dead trees or trees damaged or dying because of injurious agents . . . to recover economic value that would otherwise be lost.”

In practice, salvage logging often also results in the removal of undamaged live trees along with the dead or damaged ones (Shore et al. 2003; Foster and Orwig 2006). Salvage logging is widely practiced throughout the world (table 1.2).

Salvage logging may occur after a wide variety of disturbances, such as the following:

• Wildfires (McIver and Starr 2000; Nappi et al. 2004; Hutto 2006)
• Insect attacks (Radeloff et al. 2000; Shore et al. 2003; Foster and Orwig 2006)
• Hurricanes, cyclones, and other severe windstorms (Nilsson 1975; Savill 1983; Foster and Orwig 2006)
• Floods (Gregory 1997) and debris flows (Beschta, 1979)
• Volcanic eruptions (Eggler 1948; Franklin et al. 1985; Dale et al. 2005)

Most of the literature on salvage logging is related to wildfires (table 1.2), although there are regional differences in the dominant disturbance agent: fires in Australia and western North America, windstorms in Europe and eastern North America (table 1.2), and insects and fire in Canada and, more generally, in boreal regions.

Salvage logging is practiced in all forested regions of the world including tropical forests (Van Nieuwstadt et al. 2001) and boreal and temperate forests (McHugh 1991; Che and Woen 1997; Kulakowski and Veblen 2007). It is also applied in plantations (Holtam 1971; Shakesby et al. 1993, 1996; Rackham 2001). Salvage logging is most prevalent in ecosystems where natural disturbances occur as partial or complete stand-replacement events (McIver and Starr 2000; Lindenmayer and Noss 2006).

Salvage logging has been practiced for a long time and is a concept and practice dating back to the origins of forestry. Enormous volumes of Norway spruce (Picea abies) were salvaged after being killed by insects in the mid-nineteenth century and again in the mid-twentieth century (Bejer 1988; Christiansen and Bakke 1988). Salvage logging of portions of the 1902 Yacolt Burn were among Weyerhaeuser Company’s earliest operations in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Forests in western Oregon damaged by the 1933 Tillamook Burn were salvaged continuously until at least 1959 and probably 1971 (Wells 1998). Wet eucalypt forests in Australia were salvaged after wildfires in 1926, 1932, and 1939 (Lindenmayer and Ough 2006; see figure 1.2 and chapter 4).

Salvage logging programs can be substantial and prolonged. One of the largest salvage programs in the United States followed the 1938 Hurricane in the New England region (Foster and Orwig 2006). Large areas of private, state, and federal timber affected by the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption were salvage logged (Franklin et al. 1985, 1995). Harvesting of fire-damaged timber near Campbell River on Vancouver Island provided wood to mills in Vancouver, British Columbia, for at least a decade (Mackie 2000). After Storm Gudrun (called Erwin in Germany) struck Sweden in January 2005, forest-harvesting equipment and operators were mobilized from across northern Europe to rapidly salvage most of the 7.5 million cubic meters of damaged timber (Sondell 2006; fig. 1.3).

Salvaged timber now represents a significant percentage of the wood harvested in many regions of the world. At...

Table of contents

• ABOUT ISLAND PRESS
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• DEDICATION
• Table of Contents
• PREFACE
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• Chapter 1 - The Challenge of Large-scale Natural Disturbances and Salvage Logging
• Chapter 2 - Natural Disturbance of Forest Ecosystems
• Chapter 3 - The Effects of Salvage Logging on Ecological Phenomena
• Chapter 4 - Case Studies of Salvage Logging and Its Ecological Impacts
• Chapter 5 - Reducing the Ecological Impacts of Salvage Logging
• Chapter 6 - Toward Better Management of Naturally Disturbed Forests
• GLOSSARY
• REFERENCES
• INDEX
• Island Press Board of Directors