"A new perspective is slowly taking root among forest
managers, based on growing
evidence that forest ecosystems have no waste or
harvestable surplus. Rather, it seems that forests reinvest their biological
capital back into the ecosystem, and removal of woodwhether dead or alive can
lead to biological impoverishment. Large stand-replacement blazes and major insect outbreaks may be the ecological analogue to the forest ecosystem as the
hundred-year flood is to a river. Such natural events are critical to shaping ecosystem function and processes."
"Scientists are discovering that dead trees and
downed wood play an important role in ecosystems by providing wildlife habitat,
cycling nutrients, aiding plant regeneration, decreasing erosion and
influencing drainage, soil moisture and carbon storage."
