Clarification of the Packet of Information

Protect Maryland’s Public Forests

January 2003           

Dear Legislator,

A packet of information on Maryland State Forests was delivered to your office on January 16, 2003. This packet contained an article labeled, “Why Are Maryland’s Forests Important?” and cites DNR’s Publication, “Protecting Maryland’s Green Infrastructure: The Case for Aggressive Public Policies” as a major source of information for the article.  However, not all of the information in the article is attributable to DNR. There were several additional references for this article which were inadvertently left out. They are listed below.

The Final Environmental Impact Statement of the US Forest Service’s Roadless Area Conservation Initiative was used. This report states, “Some of the potential direct and indirect adverse effects of road construction and timber harvest include:

·         Increased fragmentation and loss of connectivity

·         Adverse edge effects for some species

·         Habitat loss, and losses of habitat suitability and effectiveness for some species

·         Increased risk of introduction and establishment of nonnative invasive species, and

·         Increased potential for negative interactions with humans and illegal collection or over harvest of some species.”

A 2001 Technical Report of the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station provides extensive information on the fragmentation effect of roads on forests. The report titled, Forest Roads: A Synthesis of Scientific Information, states, that the “Undesirable consequences of roads include adverse effects on hydrology and geomorphic features such as debris slides and sedimentation, habitat fragmentation, predation, road kill, invasion by exotic species, dispersal of pathogens, degraded water quality and chemical contamination, degraded aquatic habitat, use conflicts, destructive human actions (for example, trash dumping, illegal hunting, fires), lost solitude, depressed local economies, loss of soil productivity, and decline in biodiversity. This report documents each of these problems in some depth.

The book, Fresh Water, by E. C. Pielou documents the enormous amount of water that a forest releases into the atmosphere. Recognition of the fact that large-scale deforestation results in loss of nature’s natural pumps and drying of the atmosphere downwind of where forests once grew is being reinforced by recent scientific studies done around the world.

Eastern Old Growth Forests, a book edited by Mary Byrd Davis, provides a compilation of writings by a group of distinguished scientists, naturalists and environmentalists about the rare value of our remnant old-growth Eastern Forests. The value of old-growth forests to wildlife and the continued preservation of biodiversity is researched and documented. 

Mary Marsh, President                  Bob DeGroot, President                    Joan Seward Willey, Chair

Maryland Conservation Council      MAGIC                                           Sierra Club Forest Committee

410-757-5913                                301-340-8348                                   410-267-0716