Research Highlights
Large Dead Down
- Cleaning up and burning all the slash/waste leaves the remaining forest dehydrated and vulnerable to hot fires each summer fire season.
- Traditionally 2’+ diameter trees lay on the forest floor to offer moisture reserves to the standing forest (aka large dead down)
- SSOC’s are a viable alternative to the missing large dead down in our current forests
- Moisture and Fungal reservoirs are essential to the health of a natural forest. Fungus increases moisture holding capacity of soil by 80-90%
- Increased habitat for small invertebrates
Moisture monitoring
- When does it shift from fire risk to moisture sink?
- Observation over the past 5 years has shown that they do act as moisture reservoirs.
- We now need to be more scientific with our data collection.
- Local Students and Academia can help with this