Loss of Eastern Hemlock Affects Hydrology Cycles

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Conifer_plantation_on_Fireach_Beag

I am going to get a little preachy on this one.  As many of you may know, Eastern Hemlock is dying out due to the woolly adelgid.  The cited article states that this will have a lasting affect on hydrological cycles in Eastern forests.  The question is, if the loss of JUST ONE species can have such a profound affect, what does the loss of ALMOST EVERY species do?  What changes have taken place since the loss of the American Chestnut?

We need to make some serious changes if logging is going to have any future at all.  Forestry can actually be used to create more resilient, biodiverse and stable ecosystems.  It can be used for good.  Unfortunately the vast majority of the time it is used to create less diverse, brittle and degraded landscapes.  Until we move people back into the landscape as stewards of ecology, the picture you see below will be the norm.  We cannot TRUST big business resource management to make the right decisions.  We need to be there watching them and managing our own properties in a way that reflects our values.

More species diversity and multiple uses are the key to the future of forestry.  Forests should be managed in a way that augments biodiversity, logging, food production, hunting, recreation and soil building.  One should never take precedence over the other.  Anything but a multiple use scenario is wasteful and irresponsible.

http://phys.org/news/2013-05-loss-eastern-hemlock-affect-forest.html