Boreal forests are being clear-cut faster than some of their wildlife and plant species can recover, with a few failing to return even 100 years after harvesting, according to University of Alberta-led research.
From Biology News - Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology via This RSS Feed.
But, that still doesn’t answer the question of whether replanting was specifically taken into account…only that full biodiversity takes a long time.
Obviously, the trees need to grow back before any of the other organisms can repopulate the forest. But, replanting versus simply allowing those trees to spread throughout the clearcut naturally, would greatly accelerate that process. But the article makes no distinction between natural recovery versus assisted.
There are places in BC that were clearcut in the 80’s that are still almost entirely barren. This stands in total contrast to areas that were replanted manually, where it’s hard to tell that they were ever clearcut at all. I can’t say the recovery is complete, but the difference is massive.
Ah, sorry. I got distracted. I suspect there wasn’t enough/any data to really make that distinction. I mean if they could I don’t see why they wouldn’t.