Public Forests of Maryland

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High Rock provides a wonderful view of the Savage River State Forest. It is located in the High Rock Wildland area shown on the map above. A seventeen mile long nature trail, known as the Big Savage hiking trail, extends along the ridge in this area and takes hikers through several Wildland areas.

The Savage River Reservoir provides boating and canoeing for visitors to the area. This and several other reservoirs are managed by the Upper Potomac River Commission to ensure availability of a minimum volume of water in the Potomac River.

A mature public forest in Maryland usually consists of trees no older than 80-120 years. Older trees were removed in the early 1900s when most of Marylands forests were selectively logged. Recovering forests like these again provide good wildlife habitat, and a quantity of seeds and nuts to nourish wildlife. Mature forests have enabled animals like the black bear to return and thrive again in Maryland.

Maryland's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is now logging public forests at rapid pace. Since clearcutting of timber is now recognized as a bad practice by many people, DNR now specifies "regenerative or deferment logging" as a standard method to log forests. A regenerative or deferment clearcut leaves a few trees per acre supposedly to regenerate the forest. Many forest interior trees that are left behind in this way will die within a few years as the soil around them dries out, and they are exposed to full sun and wind conditions unknown to them within a mature forest. Revenues derived from logging operations go into DNRs operating funds. 15-25% of logging revenues are rebated to the county government where the public forests were logged. This flow of money to DNR and the county governments has made it difficult to stop the logging of public lands.

A forest that is logged experiences a major disturbance. Species that were part of intact forests will perish and be replaced with plants and animals that thrive in a disturbed forest environment. These are generally sun-loving plants, and animals that thrive in edge forests like the whitetail deer. Many newly logged forests are overrun by foreign invasive plants that migrate into the forest along logging roads or are introduced via the wheels of vehicles. When a new forest grows enough so that the canopy of the forest is again closed over and the ground is shaded, common forest interior plants can again reestablish themselves. Studies have shown that species adapted to mature forest conditions can take a hundred years or more to reestablish themselves in a logged forest, and may never be able to reestablish themselves in frequently logged forests.