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Logging Slash
Article #138, November 2008
By Bill Cook

     Slash is logging debris left in the forest after a harvest. Sometimes it is called logging residue. Slash can serve a range of purposes. The term "waste" would not be a good descriptive choice.

     Nutrients in slash become available to plants as they decompose or to animals that feed on the leaves, buds, and twigs. The physical structure of slash can protect new seedlings from excessive browsing from herbivores such as deer. Slash piles serve as effective refuge from predators for many small animals. Forest owners are often concerned about how slash impacts the visual quality of a post-harvest woodland. For loggers, slash is often laid in trails to better support equipment and minimize soil compaction. Slash might also become a source of energy as woody biomass.

     With increasing interest in using slash as an energy feedstock, greater concern has been placed on the effects on nutrient cycles and how to economically gather woody biomass. While the volume of slash is not the largest pool of potential wood-based energy in the Lake States, it has attracted a fair amount of attention, probably because it seems so obvious to many people.

     Forest scientists have provided decades of research into nutrient cycles of forest ecosystems, mostly from the Pacific Northwest and the South in the United States, as well as much from Canada and Sweden. Cycles have many variables, pathways, imports, and exports. Typically, trees absorb only a portion of available nutrients which move among various ecosystem pools. Forest management and removal of forest products affect nutrient cycles, but research has seldom reported losses of productivity.

     The most commonly evaluated nutrients are nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous, calcium, and magnesium. These vital nutrients exist in various chemical forms in both the soil and in living things. Different parts of trees contain different amounts of nutrients, and vary among the seasons.

     Research suggests that nutrient impacts of slash removal are temporary, with full recovery within about five years in most soils. Recovery is more rapid on sites with more organic material incorporated into mineral soil. On sites already nutrient poor, greater caution needs to be exercised.

     The amount of slash removed for energy purposes depends upon the harvest technology used. Whole-tree chipping operations remove the highest percentage of nutrients held by trees, especially when harvest occurs with leaves on, but these systems are not common in our region.

     In the Lake States, cut-to-length systems manufacture most of our forest products. These are large, complex machines that produce logs and pulpsticks in the forest, which are later carried out of the forest by another large machine. All the biomass in limbs and branches is left scattered throughout the forest. Technologies to collect a portion of the slash present economic challenges.

     Moving woody biomass to the gate of an energy facility involves a string of operations. This supply chain begins in the forest. If higher value sawlogs and pulpwood have been extracted, then only slash, non-merchantable wood, or more desirable trees are left behind. The physical distribution and composition of the slash has a great impact on how economically it can be gathered, concentrated, moved to a landing, and subsequently sold to a mill. From the landing, a range of transportation issues exist, including the cost of fuel, season, regulations, road conditions, and equipment. Operating trucks with a high percentage of empty backhauls is a particular challenge in forest product deliveries. High inefficiencies lead to lower profit margins, which can slow the development of a wood-based energy economy.

     As the wood-based energy industry emerges, a number of challenges need to be addressed before assurance can be provided that logging slash will be harvested in an environmentally and economically sound manner. If currently merchantable forest products are diverted to energy uses, then supply to existing forest product industries may become tighter and more expensive, which may undermine those critical elements of our rural economy. Growing a bioeconomy has great potential, but needs to be done in a strategic way that will minimize negative effects on both the environment and economy.

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Trailer
Bill Cook is an MSU Extension forester providing educational programming for the entire Upper Peninsula. His office is located at the MSU Upper Peninsula Tree Improvement Center near Escanaba. The Center is the headquarters for three MSU Forestry properties in the U.P., with a combined area of about 8,000 acres. He can be reached at cookwi@msu.edu or 906-786-1575.

Prepared by Bill Cook, Forester/Biologist, Michigan State University Extension, 6005 J Road, Escanaba, MI  49829
906-786-1575 (voice),  906-786-9370 (fax),  e-mail:  cookwi@msu.edu

Use / reprinting of these articles is encouraged. Please notify Bill Cook.
By-line should read "Bill Cook, MSU Extension" Please use the article trailer whenever possible.

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