WWF CONCERN

Photo's: Porthaw Glen wood, Inishowen.

WWF CONCERN OVER “TOO TIDY” FORESTS

(Click on title for WWF link)

A severe lack of deadwood in managed forests is a key reason for biodiversity loss in Western European forests, claims a recently published WWF (World Wildlife Fund) report. Rotting wood and earwigs may not play a large part in most people’s idea of an idyllic woodland scene, but it’s as important to a forest ecosystem as oaks and squirrels, and more needs to be done to protect it. Unfortunately there appears to be a misguided belief amongst the forest managers, who over-zealously remove it, that deadwood represents a sick and dying forest. In fact the opposite is true, deadwood provides the ecological niche for many of forest insects, fungi and lichens that make their living from the decomposition of this resource. In addition the tree-dwelling animals that nest in the hollows of dead trees, such as squirrels, woodpeckers, owls and bats, also loose their natural habitat.

In unmanaged European broadleaf forests, deadwood volumes normally makes up about 30 % of the total wood The report predicts that across Western Europe forests have on average only 5% of the deadwood predicted for an unmanaged ecosystem. The vast quantities of species that require a deadwood habitat is striking there are more than 1700 species of insect relying on dead wood alone. The WWF report claims that these species associated with deadwood now make up the largest single group of threatened species in Europe. In addition to providing habitat, deadwood also serves the forest as a supplier of nutrients and organic matter to the soil, a slope stabiliser and a protector against soil erosion.

The WWF is calling on European governments, forest owners, and industry to help conserve biodiversity by increasing the amount of deadwood in managed forests. As WWF Forest specialist Daniel Vallauri said, "We need to debunk the myths that dead wood and veteran trees mean a sick forest. In most cases they mean a healthy forest with a long life cycle and a very high diversity of habitats for species." The report is great news for those of us who have untidy areas of the garden with lots of decaying matter.

There are initiatives in woodlands that are actually drilling holes into the wet, west side of healthy trees to gather water and rot. This will attract woodpeckers and insects. Another idea is to actually kill some of the trees in the woodland to give a helping hand to speed up the rotting process. Of course these ideas are only used on trees not used for timber. The WWF organisation are hoping that their initiatives will be enough to kick start the bio- diversity needed in woodland and hopes that woodland managers won’t be as tidy in the future

Environmental.