A comparison: forest fires and clear-cut harvesting impacts as disturbances within the boreal forest

Abstract

Clear-cut harvesting is often said to be an imitation of fires impact on the landscape when discussing how harvesting is thought out or planned. Clear-cut harvesting and fires have significantly different impacts on the landscape and the site. These impacts range from different impacts on soil minerals and, soil acidity to landscape forest mosaic management and the implications of different fire regimes across the landscape. Fire as a disturbance is highly variable, and as such any attempt to substitute one form of Clearcut harvesting to act in its place is inadequate, alternative forms of harvesting may better emulate fire. Further research is required in order to understand long term impacts of logging on successional patterns and the spatial arrangement of harvests.