Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

January 18, 2007 issue

Harvesting The Globe: Where Is the Truth?

A guest editorial by W.V. McConnell

Editor’s note: Mr. McConnell provided a 14-entry bibliography and in-text citations with this editorial that High Country Press will provide to anyone who is interested in his sources.

For some 60 years, as a forester and land manager, I've played a role in the management of pubic and private land throughout the Southeast: a career that includes 10 years in the Southern Appalachians in Tennessee. From my retirement easy chair in Florida I've followed with interest the developing story of the Globe Project, and most recently, the debate between Joy Malone, U.S. Forest Service District Ranger, and Christopher Joyell, Project Campaign Coordinator of the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project.

As I read them, the arguments in the published articles on both sides are opinions, not objective statements of fact supported by references to peer reviewed research published in professional journals. The result is entertaining reading but provides little useful information. Lacking this essential element of critical analysis, readers will find it difficult to reach a rational decision on the merits of the proposal. As I know nothing of the professional backgrounds of either of the protagonists, my evaluation of the Globe Project is based on the rather extensive research I've conducted on this subject rather than on what they've written. Here's what I've found.

The Forest Service states that its proposal centers on the creation of what wildlife biologists call "early successional habitat." Joyell contends that "the answer is timber, plain and simple." To help readers understand the management concepts involved and to reach an informed decision as to the merits of the arguments, here are some statements, supported by scientific documentation, that focus on the key issues involved.

Early successional habitat (areas of newly established vegetative cover generally less than 10 years in age) is an essential component of the habitat spectrum required by a variety of game and non-game species. Timber stands open to the sunlight produce large quantities of insects, sprouts, shrubs, grasses and forbs. These areas provide ideal foraging for such game species as ruffed grouse, woodcock, rabbit, white tailed deer, black bear and eastern wild turkey. Newly created openings in the forest canopy also provide nesting and feeding opportunities for a number of disturbance-dependent non-game bird species.

This habitat and its management were the subject of special coverage in the summer 2001 issue of the Wildlife Society Bulletin. In this peer-reviewed journal of the professional organization of American wildlife biologists, a series of eight articles examined in depth the changes in habitat and population that have resulted from past land-use practices and are resulting from current non-management of wildlands in the eastern United States. In that series, Hunter et al (2001) list 39 bird species of eastern America that are associated with early successional and forest edge conditions. The range-wide populations of 26 of these species are exhibiting a significant decrease while 8 are exhibiting a significant increase.

The ruffed grouse is considered an indicator species for wildlife requiring early successional habitat to maintain species vigor.

In the Globe Project, the Forest Service proposes to create managed disturbances in the existing unbalanced conditions, thus directly addressing the major issue defined by Hunter et al: “The key forest bird management issue today lies in how best to protect, create, or restore an appropriate mix of frequently disturbed and infrequently disturbed forested conditions.”

The Forest Service direction is in direct opposition to Joyell' s position that, essentially, no management is the best management. Joyell's opinion contrasts dramatically with peer-reviewed and published statements by wildlife management professionals. The consensus of the opinion of the eight wildlife biologists writing for the Wildlife Society Bulletin is as follows: “Allowing ‘nature to take its course’ cannot restore the disturbance-maintained ecosystems present prior to European settlement. These conditions are likely lost forever due to the permanent loss of land to human development, loss of keystone species, disruption of natural processes, and an ever-increasing array of exotics.”

Based on the evidence presented above, in my opinion, the Globe Project works to correct an unsatisfactory and deteriorating forest condition. It will do this by creating diversity as recommended by wildlife biologists, using carefully planned and esthetically sensitive tree harvesting to achieve its objective. The end result should be a healthier, more attractive and more productive forest.