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Type: Journal Article
Author(s): D. B. Lindenmayer; R. F. Noss
Publication Date: 2006

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. © Society for Conservation Biology. Abstract reproduced by permission.

Online Links
Citation: Lindenmayer, D. B., and R. F. Noss. 2006. Salvage logging, ecosystem processes, and biodiversity conservation. Conservation Biology, v. 20, no. 4, p. 949-958. 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2006.00497.x.

Cataloging Information

Topics:
Regions:
Alaska    California    Eastern    Great Basin    Hawaii    Northern Rockies    Northwest    Rocky Mountain    Southern    Southwest    National
Keywords:
  • conservation
  • disturbance
  • ecosystem dynamics
  • erosion
  • forest management
  • forest management
  • human disturbance
  • invasive species
  • logging
  • natural disturbance
  • salvage
  • species diversity (plants)
  • succession
  • trees
  • wildfires
Tall Timbers Record Number: 19935Location Status: In-fileCall Number: Journals-CAbstract Status: Okay, Fair use, Reproduced by permission
Record Last Modified:
Record Maintained By: FRAMES Staff (https://www.frames.gov/contact)
FRAMES Record Number: 44552

This bibliographic record was either created or modified by Tall Timbers and is provided without charge to promote research and education in Fire Ecology. The E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database is the intellectual property of Tall Timbers.