Kelly wrote: One of the major impacts of people is to remove not only
cover,
but nest sites and good insect-producing habitats.

One of my concerns has been that removal of English Ivy sometimes leaves
bare patches of soil on steep slopes; the ivy smothers everything else.
We're trying not to disturb the forest floor "duff" and are placing locally
occurring, fallen branches, tree limbs etc. on the ground normal to surface
water flow. Maple Creek has its own rather impressive snags, complete with
woodpecker apartment houses that occasionally can and do fall on houses.
No personal injuries so far; but it's a tradeoff!

Dennis suggested shrubs as opposed to ground cover. We're looking at
evergreen huckleberry and various species of Vaccinum. The latter is
ubiquitous in the dense shade of the Alaskan boreal rainforest as well as
more open slopes in the Cascades.

Herb Curl

h.curl at hazmat.noaa.gov "You may be only young once but you can be
Hazmat/NOAA, 7600 Sand Pt. Wy., NE immature the rest of your life."
Seattle, WA 98115-0070
(206) 526-6272