The principal reasons for these specific recommendations are as follows:

A. The Savages

1. Could be connected with the existing Big Savage Mountain wildland, thereby enhancing the size of a protected contiguous tract.

2. Designation would add North- and East-facing slopes to the existing wildland that has mostly South- and West-facing slopes. This would add more mesic conditions to the wildland, thereby increasing habitat diversity and improving the wildland’s representation of the Allegheny mountain system. Additionally, the slopes of the subject area are themselves very steep and thereby add high within habitat ("alpha") diversity in a relatively small surface area.

3. Due to numerous springs that are reliable in the watershed's present successional condition, Little Savage River provides a steady flow of cold water to Savage River. This could be expected to continue as the successional condition matures (i.e., continues to age without the vegetation being cut.) This is important to maintenance of the coldwater fish community.

4. Includes an impressively beautiful cascade/waterfall ("Jacob's Ladder").

1. The stream is considered to hold the best brook trout population in the State. It is a third, order stream. It is relatively unusual for a stream this large to retain a good brook trout population. This is because most large streams have had sufficient disturbance within their watersheds to cause more degradation than the species can tolerate; in many cases, brook trout have therefore become confined to streams issuing from relatively small watersheds that still remain relatively undisturbed.

2. A relatively high percentage of the watershed is in State ownership, thereby making it relatively easy to insure maintenance of suitable stream-protective land uses.

1. The stream has very high water quality.

2. There is a large contiguous area of mature forest, with two stands possibly qualifying as "old growth."

3. The area is essentially roadless, thereby adding to its ability to provide relatively scarce remote-area recreation.

4. Because of a variety of gradients, there is high within-habitat diversity

The Wildlands Act of 1971 intended " . . . to secure for the people of Maryland of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of State wildlands." Purposes intended by the act include recreational, scenic, scientific, educational, conservation and historical uses (Maryland Wildlands Committee, 1989). In the context of present and anticipated problems, from Tidewater Administration's standpoint, conservation is foremost among these, closely followed by recreation, scientific and education uses, and preservation of scenic resources.

A number of arguments urging conservation and preservation of wildlands derive from the pressures exerted by population growth and increasing societal demands, both purposeful and unintended, upon ecosystems and natural resources. Important among these are the following:

1. Maintenance of biodiversity. Problems are posed by:

a. habitat fragmentation, aggravated by:

loss/constriction of mature forest habitat caused by converting large areas back into an earlier, younger, less suitable successional state. A subset of this problem is

b. barriers to population/genetic interaction posed by inhospitable,         man-altered areas including agricultural and urban/suburban situations;

c. constriction of range, caused by climatic change;

d. small, isolated populations vulnerable to local extirpation;

2. Maintenance of ecosystem functions and services, such as

a. regulation of atmospheric and water chemistry of both regions and the entire planet;

b. "cycling"; including:

•  production: the collection, conversion and sequestration of mineral elements and compounds, and the collection of solar energy into plant material;

•  consumption: conversion of plant material into animal tissue;

•  decomposition: breakdown of organic wastes and dead tissue into organic and inorganic compounds available for re-integration into living material.

•  a most important aspect of cycling is the retention of mineral elements and compounds and biotically produced compounds in a location and condition readily available for human use.

c. protection processes: control of soil erosion, maintenance of soil fertility;

d. regulation of the hydrologic cycle (control of the rates of evaporation, evapotranspiration, surface runoff, groundwater recharge);

e. maintenance of a "genetic library";

f. maintenance of "dynamic stability", the capacity to reverse trends, e.g., the negative feedback phenomena that control pest outbreaks (OTA, 1987). Often oversimplistically referred to as "the balance of nature."

C. Recreation Issues Bearing on Wildlands Designation

1. Provision of remote area "wilderness" (-like) recreation.

2. Maintenance of high quality trout fishing opportunity.

1. The need to learn more about the habitat and other life requirements of rare, threatened or endangered species, or those in need of conservation, in order to be able to maintain them (onsite or offsite) or restore them, if previously extirpated, by recreating suitable conditions. The point becomes more important in the face of the likely impending climatic changes. Species habitats/ranges are likely to contract vertically and move upward, and become displaced northward (possible approximate 1,000-1,200 feet upward and 185 miles northward: Peters, 1989).

Sections above, note several issues that bear upon designation of wildlands. This section discusses those issues and provides explanation as to how addressing those issues argue in favor of designating areas to be wildlands.

Maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem function and services. The two aspects of conservation issues are closely interlinked.

1. Maintaining biological diversity, i.e., the numerical richness, abundance, and distribution of species is dependent upon conditions continuing to be within the range of the organisms' adaptive capabilities. Definition of that range is established over long periods of relatively constant conditions, during which genetic mutation allows species to adapt to those conditions. If rates of change or physical conditions are too great in either space or time--that is, conditions change too much either in a local area or too frequently in a given time frame, the species will cease to exist under those conditions. Too much change can and should be considered as pollution from the point of view of the affected organisms.

MacArthur and Wilson published The Theory of Island Biogeography in 1967. This work explicated the concept that on islands--pieces of terrestrial habitat isolated from other land by oceans (inhospitable habitat for land-dwelling life forms) - there are fewer species of life than on larger land masses. This is because of the difficulty experienced by terrestrial life in reaching the islands and because of the relative scarcity of habitat diversity (necessary to support different life forms) on small land masses. Species tend to suffer local extinction from a variety of causes. Replacement by immigrants and/or the enrichment of still-surviving species genetic pools (necessary for the maintenance of species' ability to adapt) by immigrants is hampered by inhospitable oceanic barriers to reaching the islands.

The concept has since been extended to include numerous forms of habitat "islands" in circumstances where a given habitat type (e.g., a forest) occurs in a location that is surrounded and isolated by a different habitat type (e.g., agricultural or suburban landscapes. This phenomenon is referred to as "fragmentation." Fragmentation occurs when a large, contiguous amount of habitat is transformed into a number of smaller patches of smaller total area, isolated from each other by a matrix of habitats unlike the original (Wilcove, McLellan and Dobson, 1986). Wilcove, et al note that fragmentation has two components that cause local populations of organisms (both plant and animal) to become locally extinct. These are:

(1)  reduction in total habitat area, and

(2) difficulty of dispersal of organisms from one habitat fragment to the next.

Minckler (1976) noted that "Eastern hardwood forests are among the most complex in the world. At present, they are overwhelmingly immature. . ." If these forests are indeed overwhelmingly immature, it must also be true that habitat conditions typical of older, more mature sereal successional stages are largely missing. It would seem to logically follow that it would behoove society to allow at least some remnant areas to continue aging in order to reestablish some of the natural complexity and diversity of uneven-aged forest communities.

Norse, et al (1986) support the idea that reduced occurrence of later successional stage communities causes a reduction of diversity, and carry the argument to the point of relating the loss of ecosystem function and service to lost diversity (see also Lull and Sopper, 1969, and Likens, Bormann, et al, 1977, below): ". . .very frequent harvests, on the order of every 20 to 70 years (depending on the forest), can remove nutrients from the ecosystem faster than natural biogeochemical processes can replace them. Furthermore, frequent harvests diminish species diversity by depriving the forest of colonizing life history stages of plants and animals that require late successional forest."

Solheim, Alverson and Waller (1987a) argue that island biogeography theory is most relevant to forests as it applies to those species adapted to old-growth conditions. They recommend that the U.S. Forest Service utilize the theory to predict the response of such species to the Service's management plans. In contributing to the Wisconsin Conservation Task Force stance on management of the Chequamegon and Nicolet National Forests, they recommend that all of the planned logging be carried out on approximately 80% of the forest area. This reserves 17% and 24% of the two forests, respectively, to "diversity maintenance zones" to be held in contiguous blocks of at least 50,000 acres.

Peter Raven, Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, concurs with Minckler's assessment and supports the Solheim, et al, diversity protection proposals " . . .old growth of the sort that was present before European settlement in Wisconsin has largely been destroyed, and it is in the interest . . .of all Americans, that the opportunity be given for the restoration of this vegetation type. . . old growth vegetation is necessary for the breeding and survival of many kinds of plants and animals. The kinds of second-growth situations that are characteristic of many of our natural forests and, even more so, of altered or exploited lands are simply not adequate to protect populations of these organisms adequately." (Letter to H. H. Iltis, 8/4/86).

Similarly, Prof. B. A. Wilcox, Executive Director of the Center for Conservation Biology (Stanford University) notes: "The need for large, undisturbed tracts of forest in order to maintain their natural integrity and diversity is fundamental . . .contiguous tracts on the order of tens of thousands of acres are clearly called for in many instances. The overwhelming scientific evidence that the reduction in size and fragmentation of habitat is the major single threat to diversity in natural ecosystems very clearly compels land management agencies to consider the maintenance of intact forest first priority." (Letter to Alverson, Solheim, and Waller, 11/18/86).

Parenthetically, it is necessary to clarify that the diversity spoken of above is not strictly the same as that fostered by creating extensive amounts of edge habitat and early sereal stages as is commonly done in timber harvest and game- management activities. Human manipulation of vegetation has the ready ability to create early sereal successional stages, thereby favoring edge-adapted species as opposed to the long time spans necessary to create mesic, forest interior conditions. Where the latter are comparatively scarce (Cf. Minckler, 1976), management priority should be given to those situations and species more difficult and time-consuming to create.

The Wilcox letter cited above notes, in part: ". . .the manipulation of habitat in terms of the variety of, say, sereal stages, is not a legitimate approach to the problem of maintaining natural diversity in forest ecosystems. . ." Similarly, Norse, et al (1986, op. cit.) note, regarding the creation of edge habitat for game (p. 36): "To avoid the loss of non-game species of the forest interior, sufficient blocks are needed where these techniques are not used." With regard to forest interior breeding birds, Bushman and Therres (1988) reviewed the literature on preferred habitat conditions. They reported that although some species utilize altered habitats, 15 of 17 reached their greatest abundance in the oldest of three timber stand size/age classes (i.e., sawlog mature, as opposed to seedling/sapling or pole middle.) They also noted, however, that when canopy closure is maintained fairly completely (e.g., about 70%), thinning can enhance shrub and understory growth and favor birds using those strata in the forest. (See also Minckler, 1989; Fritz, 1988, below, re: selection management and gap space size.)

The second aspect of the conservation issue--that of maintaining ecosystem functions and services is linked to the first. This is by virtue of the fact that it is the living and dead biotic materials (i.e., animals, plants, and their wastes and dead bodies) that principally control the cycling rates, and retention and conservation of mineral nutrient elements/compounds and biologically synthesized materials. Also, it is only living green plants that can capture and sequester solar energy and make it available for use by other trophic levels and all other species.

The linkage is made clear by considering that the process of evolution selects those species for survival that are most competitively efficient at extracting nutrients and collecting energy. This implies that if a certain species is most efficient at so doing under some given habitat circumstance, its loss implies a loss of efficiency of mineral nutrient retention and energy collection and transmission. This is especially true of the species characteristic of late sereal successional stage communities.

O'Neill and Reichle (1979) stated that large biomass and large storage capability (for mineral elements and energy) is essential for slow turnover/efficient recycling of nutrients. These are the characteristics of mature forests, i.e., communities of large, slow-growing, long-lived species. Odum (1969) stated that slow cycling/turnover of nutrients maximizes the probability that mineral elements will be retained within the system.

Woodwell (1970) showed that excessive stress/disturbance on forests resulted in the losses, first, of the more complex, long-lived, larger species and later, depending on the intensity of the stresses, of, progressively smaller, shorter-lived, less complex species. Odum (1969, op. cit.) pointed out that the simpler, smaller, shorter-lived species--representative of earlier successional stage communities--are more "leaky" as ecosystem components with regard to the recycling of mineral elements/nutrients: they do not retain them as efficiently, and a greater fraction are exported. The same is true of their abilities to capture and sequester energy.

The function of control of the hydrologic cycle requires specific mention and explanation, because of its particular and extreme importance in relating human activity in the Chesapeake watersheds to the condition of the Bay and its tributaries. Gravity and down-gradient flow of water are the principal means by which solid and liquid substances, whether dissolved or suspended, are transported by natural processes. Infiltration, evaporation, evapotranspiration and the physical slowing down of surface runoff are the major physical mechanisms by which natural systems (primarily the living and dead organic components, but also the non-living microtopographic physiographic aspects) control the quantity and quality of water volume that passes through them to be exported down drainage. Control of the quality and quantity of water controls the passage and export of nutrients, sediments, fixed energy, and pollutants.

Lull and Sopper (1969) report that evapotranspiration from forest vegetation ranges from about 29 inches per year in mountainous areas (of the Northeast) to about 23 inches per year in the Maryland-Delaware Coastal plain, out of an annual rainfall of 40-50 inches. They note that high infiltration rates result from the soft uncompacted forest floors and forest litter. Similarly, Likens, Bormann, Pierce, Eaton and Johnson (1977) report that for the Hubbard Brook experimental forest

"Most precipitation infiltrates into the soil at all times and there is very little overland flow. This is because the soil is very porous, the surface topography is very rough (pit and mound, mostly from windthrown trees)."

They note that in humid regions, chemical flux and cycling are intimately linked to the hydrologic cycle and emphasize that " powerful regulating role that the living ecosystem plays in the hydrologic cycle.

It cannot be too strongly pointed out how important the living components of ecosystems are to proper functioning of the cycling of major minerals that sustain life: those species which are adapted through evolution to given conditions are the principal means whereby mineral nutrients are conserved and made available to other forms of life, including humans. Alteration of the extent, location, and composition of the living components of the ecosystem, through reduction/ fragmentation of the native forest stands can be expected to seriously affect their functional capability to control the hydrology of an area.

In addition to regulation of export of water-borne compounds, it is estimated that undisturbed forest communities can store substantial quantities of carbon. Houghton, et al (1983) and Whittaker and Likens (1973) cite figures of 135 metric tons (i.e., 135 million grams) per hectare (2.471 acres) stored in the vegetation of undisturbed temperate deciduous forest. This compares favorably with an estimate of 100 metric tons per hectare for secondary growth temperate deciduous forest.

Similarly, Harmon, Ferrell and Franklin (1990) cited estimates that a 450 year-old Douglas fir/hemlock forest (Pacific Northwest) stored 611-612 megagrams (=metric tons) per hectare, compared with 259-274 megagrams/hectare for a 60 year-old Douglas fir forest. They estimated that for managed, even-aged stand forests, rotation at 50, 75, and 100 years age would achieve carbon storages of 38%, 44%, and 51%, respectively, of the storage in the old growth condition.

We are not contemplating reservation of enough area in Maryland wildlands to make any significant difference to large-scale atmospheric carbon balances. However, it is interesting to note that reservation, so that stands, could mature to older successional stages, would increase carbon storage. This would be a positive step. As a result of harvest and conversion of 5 million hectares of old growth pacific Northwest Douglas fir/hemlock forests over the last 100 years, Harmon, et al (1990) estimate an addition of about 3.0 to 3.6 metric tones of carbon (= 11.0 - 13.2 metric tons carbon dioxide: Flavin, 1990) per hectare per year to the atmosphere. Houghton, et al (1983) estimated that since 1958 (globally) forest harvest (harvest alone; not counting clearing for agriculture) adds about 0.5 billion metric tons per year of carbon to the atmosphere. Woodwell (1988) suggested that (globally) total deforestati9n (for all reasons) adds about 1-3 billion metric tons of carbon annually.

1. Maintenance of primitive/remote area/"wilderness" like opportunities and values.

The preservation of remote area, wilderness-like situations is rated as highly important by a substantial proportion of citizens. Haas, Hermann and Walsh (1984) surveyed values and attitudes of the public (in Colorado) and found that 75% of their sample rated as "very important/extremely important" the knowledge that people today and future generations will have the option of visiting wilderness.

This study was particularly informative in that it differentiated between people who had previously visited wilderness and those who never had. This is important because it might be thought that wilderness seekers constitute only a small minority of the public. Among both subsamples, over 77% responded that the most important aspects of wilderness preservation were protecting water quality, protecting air quality, and providing wildlife habitat.

The findings are applicable to Maryland, since the sampled public closely resembles that of Maryland, as follows:

*Source: Editors, Am. Demographic. Magazine. 1984,  State Demographics Dow Jones-Irwin. Homewood, IL 335pp.

There appears to be a sizable demand for wilderness-type recreation. O'Toole (1985) reported that use is expected to exceed current capacity for wilderness recreation in the national forests in 15 years, and to exceed maximum capacity in less than 40 years. He also (O'Toole, 1988) reviewed the U.S. Forest Service's draft 1989 Resource Planning Act Assessment report. He found that U.S.F.S. estimates a 57% shortfall in being able to provide backpacking opportunities, and a 30% shortfall for primitive camping by 2040. It is noted that most primitive recreational opportunities will have to be provided on public lands.

The shortfalls reported above, and other correlative information argue in favor of designating wildlands in Maryland immediately, or as soon as possible. For example, the letter referred to above (Raven to Iltis, 8/4/86) notes that " . . . the opportunity [for recovery of biological diversity] . . . can be taken now, but . . ."the chance to set up such blocks while this can still be done should not be missed."

Similarly, O'Toole (1988) noted that the Forest Service anticipates a U.S. population growth from approximately 242 million today to 333 million in 2040, and a rise of timber stumpage prices by the year 2000, such that softwood stumpage value in the South will rise from ca. $150.00/1000 board feet in 1990 to ca. $250.00/1000 board feet in the year 2000, and in the North from $25.00 to $100.00/1000 board feet. This will increase the pressure on managers to sell timber wherever it can be harvested.

Further, the Global 2000 Report to the President (Barney, 1980), p.326, notes: "The projected growth in human population and economic activity can be expected to create enormous economic and political pressure to convert the planet's remaining wildlands to other uses. As a consequence, the extinction rate will accelerate considerably."

Finally, Maryland has no possibilities of having any Federal properties designated as wilderness. Any provision of wilderness/remote area recreation must come entirely through the action of the State. The need to provide remote area recreation should be seen in the context of the growth forecasted for the State to the year 2020, during which time an additional 830,400 State residents are anticipated. The rate of land consumption per capita in the Chesapeake region has increased from 0.18 acres in 1950 to 0.65 acres per capita in 1980. Depending on how residential development patterns are managed, additional housing and roads will absorb between 63,827 acres and 205,597 acres by 2020, increasing the developed fraction of the State from 19% to about 33% (2020 Report). Population increases will drive up the value of timber, increasing pressures to cut. Population demand for housing will absorb additional acreage, making designation for wilderness/wildlands purposes more and more difficult. Population demand for wilderness-type recreation will increase.

2. Maintenance of high quality trout fishing opportunities.

Maintenance of wilderness trout fishing recreation is a function of several interacting aspects. There must obviously be high water quality, and steady, sufficient cold groundwater flows in adequate volume on a year round basis to moderate temperature stresses. There must be adequate, but not superabundant nutrients reaching the stream. These must be principally in the form of coarse particulate organic matter (CPOM), or allochthonous material. The stream must be large enough to support a satisfactory-sized trout population. While the stream must be accessible, it cannot be so accessible as to foster excessive fishing pressure that can rapidly deplete the trout population. There must be a sufficient mix of the elements of physical habitat, such as large, downed timber, deep pools, undercut, but stable banks, and a substrate combination of organic and inorganic material that produces invertebrate food items. There must be percolation of cold water through the gravels of the bottom to allow incubation of eggs. Influxes of fine inorganic sediment (< 1.0 mm diameter) must be limited. There must be slow side channels and sloughs to allow nurturing of young of the year.

Essentially all of these factors are related to the degree of development/utilization of the watershed. Groundwater flows, controlling stream volume and temperature stability derive from infiltration, which is a function of the vegetative community, the perviousness and microtopography of the forest floor. The stability of flow patterns is particularly critical in the smaller tributaries because these constitute the spawning grounds of brook trout. Alteration of the infiltration patterns by land management changes can reduce spawnable habitat, as can alteration of the temperature patterns or the reduction of groundwater flows.

The availability of large, coarse particulate allochthonous material is dictated by the abundance of riparian vegetation throughout the lengths of the first and second order tributaries that penetrate far into the watershed. The drainage density, i.e. the stream length per unit area of watershed (miles per square mile) determines to what extent the production of the watershed is made available to the aquatic sub-ecosystem. In Maryland as a whole, there are approximately 1.7 miles of stream per square mile (R. Klein, personal. comments). The abundance of all allochthonous material, both large and small, is important to the creation of varied velocity patterns, the gouging out of deep holes, and retention of the leaf and twig matter that small stream invertebrates feed upon.

Many of the features critical to trout stream ecosystems are maximally developed in forest situations with old-growth characteristics (Sedell and Swanson, 1984). They noted the abundance of large wood, a mix of deciduous and coniferous leaf and wood litter, and light gaps as contributing to habitat richness. Dean (Fisheries Division, Tidewater Admin.) noted that large (larger than second order) streams which retained these characteristics and supported viable brook trout populations are rare in Maryland, because so many of the larger watersheds have been disturbed by fragmentation and a variety of cumulative effects since about 1900 (Wildlands task force meeting minutes, 1/25/90). Sedell and Swanson (op. cit.) stated that the United States has few remaining examples of the full natural interaction of rivers with adjacent forests. Bachman (Fisheries Division, Tidewater Admin., personal comments 3/27/90) noted, with regard to Middle Fork, (a third order stream) that its outstanding trout population was due in large measure to the isolation and relative inaccessibility of the stream and the presence of the mature woodland of its watershed. The latter implies good water holding capacity, which leads to a good ground water supply, nutrient retention, available allochthonous material, minimal fine sediment inputs, and good thermal regime characteristics.

These are conceived as an interaction between the probabilities of projected growth in Maryland (cf. 2020 Report) and the loss/alteration/shrinkage of habitat for relatively scarce species, as brought about by both growth pressures (notably habitat fragmentation/conversion) and climatic changes.

The expectation is that climatic change will particularly affect those species that are more adapted to cool climates. The habitats for these species will be shifted northward and into higher altitudes. As habitats contract vertically (uphill), there will be less area available, and in some cases, none whatever, as some mountaintops will not be high enough to provide sufficiently cool climates. At the same time, human population growth will cause more area to become converted to uses other than wildlife habitat. Available habitat patches will shrink in size and become isolated from one another, thereby affecting wild population size and viability, gene pool exchanges and re-colonization potential.

As noted above, learning enough about the requirements of wild populations to be able to either specify what habitats must be left, or what habitats may be able to support relocated/re-introduced species requires that those relatively rare habitats be set aside for study. They should be set aside in sufficiently large patches/areas that they can, in fact, constitute adequate habitat to support the species in question.

As old growth forest is of such restricted extent, relatively large areas where 70-90 years of growth has taken place constitute the nearest approach Maryland has to re-establishment of this type of habitat. Thus, taking advantage of the existence of this maturity class of forest and reserving portions to permit further maturation, especially where patches may include some older stands, contributes to the development of scientific knowledge and education concerning these issues.