On an east Texas forest site, clearcutting and site preparation did not change the soil pH. Chopping and KG blading significantly reduced organic matter in the surface soil, while burning slightly increased it. Organic matter showed a positive and significant relationship to potassium, calcium and magnesium. All site treatments increased phosphorus and potassium, with the greatest increase on the burned plots. Calcium and magnesium contents also increased with burning but decreased with KG blading. Burning appeared better than the other treatments for maintaining or improving the soil nutrient regime. However, planted loblolly pine seedlings survived and grew best with mechanical treatments that controlled competing vegetation

Halls, L. K.

Stransky, J. J.

Watterston, Kenneth G.

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Stephen F. Austin State UniversitySFA ScholarWorksFaculty Publications Forestry1983Soil response to clearcutting and site preparation inEast TexasJ. J. StranskyArthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture, Stephen F. Austin State UniversityL. K. HallsKenneth G. WatterstonArthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture, Stephen F. Austin State UniversityFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/forestryPart of the Forest Management CommonsTell us how this article helped you.This Conference Proceeding is brought to you for free and open access by the Forestry at SFA ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion inFaculty Publications by an authorized administrator of SFA ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact cdsscholarworks@sfasu.edu.Recommended CitationStransky, J. J.; Halls, L. K.; and Watterston, Kenneth G., "Soil response to clearcutting and site preparation in East Texas" (1983).Faculty Publications. Paper 256.http://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/forestry/256SOIL RESPONSE TO CLEARCUTTING AND SITE PREPARATION IN EAST TEXAS.!/ J. J. Stransky, L. K. Halls, and K. G. Watterston.~/ Abstract.-- On an east Texas forest site, clearcutting and site preparation did not change the soil pH. Chopping and KG blading significantly reduced organic matter in the surface soil, while burning slightly increased it. Organic matter showed a positive and significant relationship to potassium, calcium and magnesium. All site treatments increased phosphorus and potassium, with the greatest increase on the burned plots. Calcium and magnesium contents also increased with burning but decreased with KG blading. Burning appeared better than the other treatments for maintaining or improving the soil nutrient regime. However, planted loblolly pine seedlings survived and grew best with mechanical treatments that controlled competing vegetation. INTRODUCTION For fifty years clearcutting has been a serious issue among forest managers. In the late twenties and early thirties, many European foresters expressed concern about the effects of clearcutting on the soil. Wittich (1930) found no biological changes in the soil after clearcutting in Germany and attributed temporary changes in the nutrient regime to the transition from one plant successional stage to another. Feher (1931) in Hungary supported Wittich's findings that the effects of clearcutting are short-lived and are reversed by the beneficial shading of upcoming vegetation. The clearcutting issue became more complicated with the addition of questions about its unsightliness and loss of wildlife habitat. But the current controversy centers largely on loss of soil productivity. As a result, court decisions have banned clearcutting in many parts of the United States. Facts are needed to clarify 1/ Paper presented at the Second Biennial Southern Silvicultural Research Conference. Atlanta, Georgia, November 4-5, 1982. 2/ Research Forester and Project Leader (retired), respectively, Southern Forest Experiment Station, USDA Forest Service, Wildlife Habitat and Silviculture Laboratory, Nacogdoches, Texas 75962; maintained in cooperation with the School of Forestry, Stephen F. Austin State University, where Dr. Watterston is professor of forest soils. The study was established and is maintained with the assistance of Temple-Eastex, Incorporated of Jasper, Texas. -54-some of the misunderstandings between proponents and opponents of clearcutting and site preparation. Recent studies in New Hampshire and in the central and southern Appalachians indicated relatively little adverse effects from clearcutting on soil nutrients (Reinhart 1973). OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to determine soil response to timber clearcutting and the preparation of planting sites in the loblolly-shortleaf pine-hardwood forest type that covers nearly 70 million ac in the South and reaches its westernmost extension in east Texas. STUDY SITE The study site was located on a nearly level to gently sloping terrace on the Angelina River in Jasper County, Texas. The tract, owned by Tem.ple-Eastex, Incorporated, had never been cleared for agricultural crops, although it was probably grazed by livestock in the past (Stransky 1976). The area is part of the Gulf Coastal Plain's Quaternary deposits, which are underlain by sands, sandstones, and clays of the Tertiary's Oligocene period (Dumble 1918). Soils belong to the Bernaldo-Elysian complex and to the Sacul series. Bernaldo-Elysian soils are moundy and occur in such a complex pattern that separation is very difficult. Bernaldo soils (Glossic Paleudalfs, fine-loamy siliceous) occupy the lower part of the mounds and most of the adjoining 1ow areas, and compose about 50 percent of the areas. Elysian soils (Haplic Glossudalfs, coarse-loamy, siliceous) occupy most of the large mounds and about 40 percent of the area.. The major difference between these soils is that the sandy surf ace layer more than 20 inches thick on the Elysian soil, but is thinner on the Bernaldo. Slopes range from 0 to percent. These moderately permeable soils well drained, slow runoff. Sacul soils clayey, mixed) drains and normally have a concave topography. They occupy slopes from 1 to 6 percent, are moderately well drained, and have s1ow permeability. are hot and humid, and the winters season is about 240 days long. Annual averages about 51 inches, but in 1972, 1973, and 1974 it was 54, 87, and 70 inches; often interfering with planned study activities. On the experimental site, loblolly pine L.) and some shortleaf pine (Pinus occurred in admixture with~~-oak Michx.), oak Prominent shrubs were American beautyberry ,~==.:~~~~~==:..:=:...:=:.;:.:.::~L.), yaupon spp.) '=.t...=.== ..:::==-== L.) • Carolina (L.) Ait. f. , ~~~~~~ Michx.), and most prominent vines. Longleaf uniola devils's grandmother and two-eyed-berry '-=-'===- ~~~:::!::.±:-!::.:!::.!:!!:~ Poir. ) , ~~~~~ !£!!~~~ L.)' most abundant herbaceous STUDY .METHODS Design and Treatments In September 1972 all were cut and removed from the February and March 1974 the ration treatments were applied a randomized block design with were the slash and all stems were cut a chopper and burned. The chopper re-sembles a roller equipped with to the long axis of by a large crawler tractor, the chopper cut non-merchantable trees and shrubs into small chunks and crushed the debris into the surface soil. The chopped plots have been prepared in October 1972, but heavy rains prevented completion of the other treatments. These plots were rechopped when the other site treatments were applied. stems were cut with a KG logging slash was raked off the and burned. The KG blade resembles a straight razor and is mounted at an angle on the front of a tractor. It sheared off all stems in its path. The cutting process greatly churned up the soil surface and pushed some litter and topsoil off the planting site. The area was handplanted with 1-0 loblolly pine seedlings at 8 x 10 foot spacing in mid-March 1974. Soil Response Measurements (before clearcutting) and in season after site treat-ments were 1 inch diameter soil cores were taken at the depth of 0 to 2 and 2 to 5 inches near each of 20 sample points that were established in the interior 1 ac center of each plot. The five individual samples from each depth were composited and analyzed for organic matter by loss on ignition, pH by glass electrode, phosphorus by the sulfo-molybdic blue color method, and potassium, calcium, and magnesium by the atomic absorption method. The 1972 and 1974 data were compared by analysis of variance. All testing was at the 0.05 percent level of The Bernaldo-Elysian and the Sacul soils were combined and considered as one soil because initially (1972) neither forage yield nor most surface soil characteristics were significantly different between the two soil types. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Clearcutting itself did not remove sizeable amounts of nutrients as only the logs were taken from the area. The upper stems and crowns with their branches, twigs, and foliage were left on the ground to be incorporated into the soil by decay, fire, or chopping. Nutrient losses from :his type of logging are small because the logs contain few nutrients, and most are in the leaves and twigs (Stone 1973). Same leaching of soil nutrients could occur after clearcutting, but rapid revegetation usually protects the soil surface and continues to add nutrients (Burns and Hebb 1972, Stransky et al. 1974). pH Soil pH values were similar for all treat-ments and at both soil depths before and after site preparation (Table 1). This result is some-what in contrast to another study that shows small increases in pH by burning (Wells 1971). Organic Matter In both 1972 and 1974, organic matter was about two times higher in the surf ace soil than in the 2 to 5 inch depth (Table 1). Differences bet-ween plots were not significant in 1972, but in 1974 the soil on the chopped and KG plots had significantly less organic matter content in the surface soil than the control and burned plots. Several studies have described the positive relationship between fertility and or~anic matter content of southern forest soils. Stransky (1961, 1964) showed that the growth of planted pine seed-lings was retarded by organic matter removal. Thus, the decreased organic matter on the chopped and KG plots can possibly influence the future pro-ductivity of the site. The effects of litter and slash removal are likely to be most pronounced where hardwoods predominate because the hardwood litter contains more nutrients and decomposes faster than pine litter (Alway et al. 1933, Coile 1937). The explanation for the lowered organic mat-ter content on the KG plots is fairly obvious. The organic matter was simply removed from the plots. Haines et al. (1975) warned that such practices would be detrimental to the soil nutrient regime, and Hicock et al. (1931) noted that the removal of litter alone would seriously deplete organic matter reserves. The losses with chopping are difficult to ex-plain as no organic matter was removed from the plots. The slash was broken up by repeated chopping and pressed into the soil surface, possibly result-ing in more rapid decay. Because of heavy rains in 1973 and 1974, some of it could have been washed from the ridges into the valleys cut by the chopper blades. As only the ridges were sampled, some of the organic matter may have been excluded. It is unlikely that the organic matter moved to lower soil depths as the 2 to 5 inch depth showed no increase. Phosphorus Before clearcutting, the soils had a higher phosphorus content in the surface layer than in the 2 to 5 inch depth. After the ti1D.ber was cut and the sites prepared, however, the differences between depths became non-significant (Table 1). In this study it appeared that phosphorus increased in the lower depth as a result of leaching from the surface. Table 1.-- Soil characteristics before clearcutting (1972) and after site preparation (1974). treatments Soil Control Soil Depth Burn Chop KG Characteristics 1972 1974 1972 1974 1972 1974 1972 1974 pH 0-2 5.3 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.6 5.2 5.4 2-5 5.3 5.3 5.5 5.5 5.7 5.6 5.3 5.4 Organic Matter 0-2 5.8 5.2 5.3 5.6 5.7 4.4 6.0 3.6 (percent) 2-5 2.8 2.5 2.4 2.6 2.7 2.6 3.0 2.0 Phosphorus 0-2 6.5 5.2 5.4 6.4 4.0 4.4 4.7 5.5 (ppm) 2-5 3.7 4.6 3.5 4.6 1.9 4.0 2.0 5.8 Potassium 0-2 39.3 39.9 30.7 38.9 30.8 34.2 31.2 34.2 (ppm) 2-5 16.3 19.7 16.9 18.4 18.9 19.4 17.5 18.7 Calcium 0-2 243.6 286.4 180.6 232.4 232.7 227.0 157.2 145.3 (ppm) 2-5 85.4 84.3 65.1 67.0 99.7 87.7 46.9 46.0 Magnesium 0-2 65.2 50.8 51.6 54.8 42.6 43.8 49.9 38.0 (ppm) 2-5 41.0 27.9 22.0 19.9 17.1 19.7 22.0 22.0 -56-In 1972, the plots to be chopped and KG bladed were significantly lower in phosphorus than the contro1 and burn plots, but the reason why was not obvious. In 1974, phosphorus had increased on all treatments except the control, and treatment differences were still significant. The greatest increase in phosphorus occurred on the burned plots, probably because of the phosphorus released in burning. The interactions of depth x treat-ments were not significant in either 1972 or 1974. Potassium Potassium content of the soil was con-sistently higher in the surface than in the 2 to 5 inch depth (Table 1). For an as yet unknown reason it was higher, too, in the surface soil of the contro1 plots than on the other plots in 1972. After site preparation the treatment differences were no longer significant. This difference in potassium between years was significant in the surface soil, but not in the 2 to 5 inch depth, indicating greater increases in the surf ace bet-ween years. The depth x treatment interaction was non-significant in both years. Calcium Calcium content was significantly greater in the surf ace soil than in the 2 to 5 inch depth in both 1972 and 1974 (Table 1). Calcium contents at both soil depths were not significantly dif-ferent between plots before cutting and site treat-ments. However, differences in calcium levels bet-ween treatments were significant for the surf ace soil layer in 1974 as a result of increases on the control and burned plots and slight decreases on the chopped and KG bladed plots. Magnesium Magnesium content was approximately two times higher in the surf ace soil than in the 2 to 5 inch depth (Table 1). In 1972, magnesium content was significantly higher on the control plots than on any others. In 1974, the KG bladed plots had the lowest content of magnesium in the surface soil, probably because raking the logging slash off the plots removed organic matter. Nutrient Relationships Simple linear regressions indicated that organic matter was significantly related to calcium, magnesium, and potassium content of the soil. Other studies have also shown the close re-lationship between organic matter and mineral con-tent of coarse-textured soils (Wilde 1946). The increase of phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and magnesium in the 0 to 2 inch layer of soil corrobo-rates studies which indicate that fire benefits the soil nutrient regime in southern upland forests (Moehring et al. 1966, Stone 1971, Wells 1971). -57-However, despite of their generally lower nutrient regime and higher soil bulk density (Stransky 1981), the planted pines survived and grew best on the mechanically prepared sites where competing vegetation was effectively reduced (Stransky and Halls 1981). LITERATURE CITED Alway, F. M., J. Kittredge, and W. J. Methley. 1933. Composition of the forest floor layer under different forest types on the same soil type. Soil Sci. 36:387-398. Burns, R. M., and E. A. Hebb. 1972. Site preparation and reforestation of draughty acid sands. USDA Agric. Handb. 426, 61 p. Coile, T. S. 1937. Composition of the leaf litter of forest trees. Soil Sci. 43:349-355. Dumble, E. T. 1918. The geology of east Texas. Univ. Texas Bull. 1879. 388 p. Feht!r, D. 11 1931. Uber den Einfluss des Kahlschlages auf den Verlauf der biologischen und biochemischen Prozesse im Waldboden. Silva 19:185-190, 193-195. Haines, L. w., T. K. Maki, and s. G. Sanderford. 1975. The effects of mechanical site preparation treatments on soil productivity and tree (Pinus taeda L. and P. elliottii Engelm. var. elliO"ttii) growth. p. 379. In Bernier, B., and c. H. Winget (eds.) Forest soil and forest land management. Proc. Fourth Am. For. Soils Conf., Laval Univ. Press, Quebec. 675 p. Hicock, H. W., M. F. Morgan, H. G. Lutz, H. Bull, and H. A. Lunt. 1931. The relation of forest composition and rate of growth to certain soil characters. Connecticut Agric. Exp. Stn. Bull. 330:673-750. Moehring, D. M., C. X. Grano, and J. R. Bassett. 1966. Properties of forested loess soils after repeated prescribed burns. USDA For. Serv. Res. Note S0-40, 4 p. South. For. Exp. Stn. New Orleans, LA. Reinhart, K. G. 1973. Timber-harvest clearcutting and nutrients in the northeastern United States. USDA For. Serv. Res. Note NE-170. 5 p. Northeast. For. Exp. Stn. Upper Darby, PA. Stone, E. L., Jr. 1971. Effects of prescribed burning on long-term productivity of Coastal Plains soils. USDA For. Serv. Prescribed burning symposium proc. 160 p. Southeast. For. Exp. Stn. Asheville, NC. Stone, E. L., Jr. 1973. The impact of timber harvest on soils and water. In Report of President's Advisory Panel on Timber and the Enviromnent, Appendix M:427-467. U.S. Govt. Print. Office, Washington, DC. Stransky, J. J. 1961. Weed control, soil moisture, and loblolly pine seedling behavior. J. For. 59:282-284, and 289-290. Stransky, J. J. 1964. Site preparation effects on early growth of loblolly pine. USDA For. Serv. Tree Plant. Notes 64:4-6 Stransky, J. J. 1976. Vegetation and soil response to clearcut-ting and site preparation in east Texas. Ph. D. Diss. Texas A&M Univ. College Station, TX. 193 p. Stransky, J. J. 1981. Site preparation effects on soil bulk density and pine seedling growth. South. J. Applied For. 5:176-180. Stransky, J. J., and L. K. Halls. 1981. Forage and pine growth with clearcutting and site preparation. p. 343-348. In J. P. Barnett (ed.) Proc. First BieD:'nial South. Silvicultural Res. Conf. USDA For. Serv. Gen. Tech. Rep. S0-34. 375 p. South. For. Exp. Stn. New Orleans, LA. Stransky, J. J., E .. s. Nixon, C. L. Burandt, and R. L. Willett. 1974. First-year revegetation following timber harvest in east Texas. USDA For. Serv. Res. Note S0-173. 7 p. South. For. Exp. Stn. New Orleans, LA. -58-Wells, c. G. 1971. Effects of prescribed burning on soil chemical properties and nutrient availability. In USDA For. Serv. Prescribed burning symposium proc. 160 p. Southeast. For. Exp. Stn. Asheville, NC. Wilde, S. A. 1946. Forest soil and forest growth. Chronica Botanica Co., Waltham, MA. 241 p. Wittich, H. " 1930. Untersuchungen uber den Einfluss des Kahlschlages auf den Bodenzustand. Mitt. Forst-wirtschaf t Forstwiss. 1:438-506. Hannover. 

Soil response to clearcutting and site preparation in East Texas

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Soil response to clearcutting and site preparation in East Texas

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