Four years after logging, the Hogback sale in the Ocoee district still a barren waste
Such is the effects of "restoration logging". Since the 1990's the Forest Service has switched from a stated "get the cut out" philosophy to a more subtle, but still damaging one of logging for "forest health and restoration", with claims ranging from a need to log to mimic supposed historic fire regimes to restoring parklike woodland habitats. While we acknowledge that there is a historic role of limited fire in some habitats in the East and that certain forest communities may be underrepresented in places, we are concerned that the Forest Service has reduced the complexity of Eastern forests into a justification for plain old logging and burning.
Our monitoring of the Hogback sale in the Ocoee district in Polk County is meant to observe the extended effects of heavy logging for "forest health and restoration". It is a typical sale for the Cherokee, with heavy shelterwood (reducing the basal area to less than 30 - roughly 6-10 trees per acre) and seedtree (even more logging, and the "seed trees" are removed later) logging to provide "advanced oak regeneration" and to increase the presence of shortleaf pine.
We first visited several logging sites at the sale right after the cutting began in February 2013. We returned in April 2013, then June 2014, July 2014, February 2015, December 2015, and October 2016. What is notable is not only the erosion/runoff effects, but how there are spots that still are virtually bare, down to the chert, as what thin topsoil that was there has washed away. At a couple of sites where shortleaf pine had been replanted, most had unsurprisingly not made it. Our continued documentation of this sale is important to show how this kind of land management can not only be ineffective, but damaging to the land. See the slide show below.
The Forest Service acknowledged significant damage to the site. One site required turf grass to be planted to stablize erosion. A Freedom of Information Act request of agency documents show that over $100,000 has been spent to revegetate just this single 30 acre site. Several other sites remain significantly affected. The agency has looked into the long-term effects of logging on similar sites, and there are a number of other timber sales that also show some degree of land degradation. Click here for a presentation on post-logging effects on sensitive soils in the Cherokee National Forest.
Our monitoring of the Hogback sale in the Ocoee district in Polk County is meant to observe the extended effects of heavy logging for "forest health and restoration". It is a typical sale for the Cherokee, with heavy shelterwood (reducing the basal area to less than 30 - roughly 6-10 trees per acre) and seedtree (even more logging, and the "seed trees" are removed later) logging to provide "advanced oak regeneration" and to increase the presence of shortleaf pine.
We first visited several logging sites at the sale right after the cutting began in February 2013. We returned in April 2013, then June 2014, July 2014, February 2015, December 2015, and October 2016. What is notable is not only the erosion/runoff effects, but how there are spots that still are virtually bare, down to the chert, as what thin topsoil that was there has washed away. At a couple of sites where shortleaf pine had been replanted, most had unsurprisingly not made it. Our continued documentation of this sale is important to show how this kind of land management can not only be ineffective, but damaging to the land. See the slide show below.
The Forest Service acknowledged significant damage to the site. One site required turf grass to be planted to stablize erosion. A Freedom of Information Act request of agency documents show that over $100,000 has been spent to revegetate just this single 30 acre site. Several other sites remain significantly affected. The agency has looked into the long-term effects of logging on similar sites, and there are a number of other timber sales that also show some degree of land degradation. Click here for a presentation on post-logging effects on sensitive soils in the Cherokee National Forest.