I commend Maser, _Trees, Truffles and Beasts_ to the emailer's attention.

While the book looks primarily at two kinds of old forests (In US and Australia), its roots (so to speak) reach back into two research threads: the recovery of blast areas following the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens, and basic research by the authors (and others) conducted during the peculiar circumstances of the 'old growth' debate in the PNW. It's fairly well-written if text-booky (and preachy) but it neatly summarizes a chunk of research.

What allowed rapid recovery in the apparently lifeless blast zone and where it happened first post-eruption was largely a function of remaining structure. One example is that down logs (and the inside of down material) shielded small areas in their lee (or their interior) from the blast, which not only provided a source of plant seed and rootstock for rapid recolonization, but also microbes, reptiles, amphibians, insects, worms and crawly things and small mammals. There were tree-frogs where water accumulated adjacent down logs first year post-blast, and insects within reasonable travel distance to pollinate plants as they recovered.

In the process of trying to sort out what the heck an 'old growth' forest is during that era, researchers made some remarkable connections between the micro and macro life of the forest. One example (beloved of Maser) is the northern flying squirrel consuming the fruiting bodies of mychorrhizal fungi (truffles) as well as douglas-fir seeds, and flying about at night pooping fir seeds prepped for planting, in a perfect little packet of balanced fertilizer and mychorrhizal innoculum.

Microbes (notably nitrogen-fixing bacteria and mychorrhizal fungi) and insects (and the microbes in insect guts) play an enormously important role in forest ecosystems of all kinds. The 'below ground' portion of a forest is vast. The root biomass of a 50-year-old douglas-fir forest is about 20% of the total tree mass. And that doesn't include any of the other living or formerly living bits: shrub roots, groundcover roots, decaying twigs and chunks, accumulating humus, and a whole _lot_ of insects, worms, decay bacteria and the fungi which extend those roots' effectiveness to many times their actual length.

Forests do not exist without "rot". The rot part of a forest's life cycle (whatever the stand is managed for) is fascinating - and absolutely critical to maintaining energy and nutrient cycling on a site.

One of the things which makes managing a forest distinctive to me is the sheer complexity of using a naturally-functioning and largely self-renewing system to produce stuff for us humans to use. How much and how little fiddling 'ought' I do?

I have no idea what some future 'harvester' will think the "products" of the forest I am planting are. Pretty "woods" to look at and wander in? germplasm reserve? cellulosic feedstock? fuel? mushroom farm? squirrel refuge? source of miracle cure? hot tub? If I fiddle too much, will I be taking the really important thing out?