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Soil Disturbances in Logging: Effects on Soil Characteristics and Growth of Loblolly Pine in the Atlantic Coastal Plain

G. E. Hatchell,C. W. Ralston,R. R. Foil

Published 1970 in Journal of Forests

ABSTRACT

Ll>GGING CAN CAUSE compaction, puddling, and displacement of soil (Fig. 1). All types of soil disturbance occur in the Atlantic Coastal Plain, where year-round logging is carried out under a wide range of soil conditions. Compaction and disturbance of forest soils have received little attention in research. Lull (5) reviewed research accomplishments prior to 1959 and concluded that compaction was likely to be a problem on many forest sites but that quantitative data on soil characteristics and tree response were almost completely lacking. Most of the literature on this problem has dealt with logging disturbance in the Pacific Northwest, where detrimental effects on the physical properties of soil and poor growth of coniferous seedlings were observed in skid trails and logging roads (1, 9, JO, 11, 12). Moehring and Rawls ( 6) reported that wet weather logging in a 40-year-old loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) stand in Arkansas compacted the silt loam soils and significantly reduced diameter growth of trees which had traffic on three sides or on all four sides. Neither diameter growth nor the measured physical properties of soils were significantly affected by traffic under dry conditions. Greater use of heavy logging equipment and the development of special skidding equipment permit yearround operations on most sites supporting loblolly pine in the Atlantic Coastal Plain. This growing potential for site damage prompted a series of investigations1 on the nature and extent of the problem of soil disturbance in logging, its severity, the rate of natural recovery of disturbed soils, and the effects of soil compaction and puddling on the establishment and early growth of loblolly pine.

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