by Michael Smith (Veshengro), RFA, EcoFor
I know that habitat piles, themselves, sound like a disease but it is not, though they can be a pain in the posterior of the professional forester and the aboriculturalist concerned with healthy trees.
The idea of the habitat piles, leaving forest debris in the woods, came from misguided environmentalists and the practice was forced upon woodland managers, foresters and those responsible for woodlands in parks by said misguided people. They claimed and still claim that such piles are good for the environment and wildlife. The fact, however, is that neither is the case.
Habitat piles are not only not all that beneficial to the environment and wildlife, they are in fact a threat to the woods and to the global climate.
In the first instance, the threat to the woods, they are, as said, a hazard to tree health, as they harbor all kinds of dangerous pathogens and also dangerous fungi that attack standing living trees.
In the second case the fact that the wood in those so-called habitat piles decays and by doing so releases two greenhouse gases of which one if CO2 and the other methane. The latter is reckoned to be many times more dangerous to the climate than is even CO2 and this is where the piles again are not beneficial at all.
Therefore the habit of habitat piles – pardon the slight pun – should be ceased forthwith, the the Forestry Commission also appears to agree with this and appears to, in fact, call for the very cessation of this practice. This cannot come soon enough and a great majority of the not too old piles should be removed as well before they do any more damage.
© 2009
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Habitat Piles – A Health Hazard in the Woods
