Protect Our
Woods
Working to preserve our rural heritage and quality of life in
southern Indiana since 1985
Working to preserve our rural heritage and quality of life in
southern Indiana since 1985
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Protect Our
Woods
Working to preserve our rural heritage and quality of life in southern Indiana since 1985 |
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A Conservationist’s Alternative Plan for Management of the Hoosier National ForestSection 2: Forest Plan Management Goals: Ecology and Humans2.2 Biological Diversity and Wildlife HabitatForest management for protection of wildlife habitat and regional and global biological diversity should be the highest priority.To manage for wild plants and animals we need to manage for three things: allow the biology of the species to work, provide habitat for the species and control humans. Most vertebrate species of interest in the United States divide their time between a number of habitat types. For many species the amount and timing of habitat changes constitutes the single most important variable limiting the viability of the population. These species survive by exploiting optional habitats as the habitats come and go around the landscape. Thus, for these species the rate and distribution of change is essential. Natural succession must continue to provide diverse landscapes. Our tendency to build static structures, fixed wildlife refuges, road networks and limited wetland boundaries, inhibits the inherent dynamic population balance of separate subpopulations of a species and ultimately the species itself. The unfragmented condition of a heterogeneous forest area provides connection between the patches essential to maintaining species diversity. To manage forested watersheds effectively we must allow for natural balanced changes in landscape dynamics. And we must not induce unnatural patterns through timbering, construction of roads or consumptive uses such as mechanized vehicle trails. When humans reduce the natural combination of habitats through fragmentation, monoculture or introduction of biologically hostile landscapes, we encourage the spread of broadly adapted, aggressive, invasive species that become difficult and costly to remove. Removal of invaders can never be complete until the natural spatial and temporal distribution of habitat units is restored. It is infinitely cheaper to preserve those combinations where they yet occur, than to try to replace them. 2.3 Forests as WatershedsProtection of forest watershed functioning should be the highest forest management priority; no erosive use such as off-road vehicle operation should be allowed.Forested watersheds play an important role in watershed management of water quality. The term "watershed" means an area upon which a drop of water falls and ultimately exits the area in a common stream. Watersheds may be of any size, from small watersheds of headwater streams to large watersheds the size of the Mississippi River. They exist as a patchwork of ecosystem units as they affect each other. Mature forests effectively reduce erosion. All else being equal even minor disturbance to a mature forest can increase erosion from 2.6 to 13 times depending on the slope. Disturbance includes hiking, biking, horse and ORV trails, roads, and timber cutting. Any activity that reduces plant cover and changes the character of the soil surface increases erosion. Many areas of highly erosion prone soils exist in the HNF. Disturbance will be more severe and recover more slowly the more deeply the soil surface is affected. Thus vehicle and heavy equipment ruts have larger and longer adverse water quality effects than footsteps. These heavier impacts require much greater expense and impact to recover. On the sensitive soils and steeper slopes recovery is impossible. These consumptive non-sustainable activities ultimately deprive all citizens of the use of these forest resources. 2.4 Forests for the Human SpiritManagement goals for "human and community development" must not eclipse the prime spiritual goals that can be fulfilled in no other public resource area in Indiana.We experience the intangible goods of the forest rather than measure or market them. Awed or humbled, grateful or tearful, we sense more than we can express. Wild nature restores man's spirit. It has a message that man-made culture needs. The power of trees, untamed by man or machine, delivers unique recreation. Such forests speak to our spirit. They connect with our roots. In the forest we can find creation as it has evolved for us. Something will be subtracted from us if we allow our last remaining forests to be sacrificed to extraction and profit. We need this link with our origins. The forest that remains must be conserved through full protection. Forest care must be left to the wisdom of its own history. Such stewardship will best serve the forest and the people. |