Habitat Loss in the Forest Botanicals Region

Logging is one form of resource extraction that contributes to habitat loss in the Appalachian Mountain region. Two forms of logging are among the top contributors to habitat loss—clearcutting and mechanized logging.⁶ Clearcutting occurs when loggers cut down most, if not all, of the trees in a selected area at the same time. Mechanized logging often happens after clearcutting when logging companies move in with large equipment, like excavators, to remove the trees from the forest. The methods and tools used in clearcutting and mechanized logging often lead to soil compaction and erosion.⁷ Soil compaction is the compression of soil particles and the resultant hardening of the soil, which decreases its water infiltration and draining capabilities.⁸ This can occur when logging companies use heavy machinery in mechanized logging like skidders to pull cut trees from the forest. Although these machines ultimately lead to greater productivity for the logging companies, their weight alone leads to the compression of the soil beneath them. Soil compaction means a decrease in plant productivity and growth and, as a result, a massive loss in plant biodiversity.⁹

Clearcutting and mechanized logging frequently appear together, as logging companies need heavy machinery to clear out all of the trees. Most forms of clearcutting lead to the destruction of forest habitats. This loss affects both animals and plants in the area because clearcutting also alters the root systems that hold the soil in place. This can then lead to erosion and even landslides.¹⁰ Clearcutting can also lead to the rapid growth of invasive plant species like kudzu and Japanese knotweed because, when trees and vegetation are stripped away, it creates a vacuum.¹¹ Non-native plant species thrive in this vacuum, as they exist with neither their natural predators or competition from native plant species like ginseng. This lack of competition occurs because invasive plants are often aggressive, as they grow and reproduce much faster than native plant species, displacing them in the process.¹² To combat the expansion of invasive plant species, remove invasive species that spread into wooded areas.

While removing invasive plant species can help, that is not the only thing people can do to help curb the negative effects of logging. One method to combat soil compaction is logging companies avoiding logging in wet areas, as wet soil is more susceptible to the effects of the heavy machinery.¹³ Another method is simply limiting the use of heavy machinery, especially on steep slopes where soil erosion is more likely to occur. Healthy soil is necessary for forest productivity and, as a nonrenewable resource, we must strive to protect it.

Mountaintop Removal

Pictured here is a mountaintop removal mining site near Inman, Virginia, on the border with Harlan County, Kentucky. This photograph was taken in January 2021 on Black Mountain, which is the highest point in Kentucky.

Mountaintop removal (MTR) mining is another common form of habitat loss in Central Appalachia. Mountaintop removal is an extractive mining practice that utilizes several destructive methods to mine the land, including blasting the mountain with explosives and digging with draglines, which are large machines capable of excavating around 100 cubic yards of soil at once.¹⁴ In focusing on the use of explosives on the mountain, specifically, we witness a loss of topographic complexity, meaning elevations change along with the chemical makeup of the soil.¹⁵ The loss of slopes in the forest greatly affects forest botanicals like ginseng, which thrive on the lower portions of northern facing slopes.¹⁶ In her work “Deep Commoning: Public Folklore and Environmental Policy on a Resource Frontier,” Folklorist Mary Hufford drove to the top of a mountaintop removal mining site in West Virginia with a local ginseng digger and buyer, Randy Sprouse. When they saw the mountain was gone, along with its steep slopes, Randy said, “I dug a lot of ginseng on that mountain. I’ll never seng there again.”¹⁷ This loss highlights not only the loss of habitat, but also a loss of a cultural institution.

While blasting changes elevations, it also leads to interior forest loss. Also referred to as fragmentation, interior forest loss occurs when the forest is divided into smaller pieces of land, creating several smaller forests.¹⁸ This form of forest loss converts the interior forest into edge forest, meaning that the innermost part of a forest where the trees are the densest and there is a significant space between man and nature is lost, which diminishes biodiversity. Some scientists, like J.D. Wickham in his article “The effect of Appalachian Mountaintop Mining on Interior Forest,” reports that most of the forests in Appalachia are interior because they are so expansive. Wickham writes that, “The Appalachian region’s recognized floral and faunal diversity (both aquatic and terrestrial) is supported by the spatially extensive character of its forests.”¹⁹ In other words, the loss of our interior forests directly leads to a loss of our forest botanicals.

Development

Mountaintop removal and logging are not only used to extract resources, though. Pictured here is an aerial image of Wallens Ridge State Prison in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. The mountain here was subjected to mountaintop removal strictly to build the compound, a supermax prison run by the state of Virginia, in 1996. In a short documentary from Appalshop called Up the Ridge: A U.S. Prison Story, Chuck Miller, an employee of the Big Stone Gap Housing Authority, explains, “When the prison officials looked at it, and we stood on top of the mountain, they went, ‘You’re kidding, aren’t you?’ and I said, ‘No. I’m not.’ But, uh, as all of us who live in the coalfields know, we can flatten a mountain in no time.”²⁰

Development is an often overlooked form of habitat loss. Although large-scale development, including prisons and apartment complexes, cover more ground in one area, the most pervasive form of development for habitat loss is the construction of vacation homes. This is mostly due to how widespread this form of construction is, which expands the amount of land that is cleared and “grubbed,” which happens when the greenery and roots left over after clearing the land are removed using large equipment like excavators, for development.

Land development and construction often utilize methods like logging and, less often, mountaintop removal to successfully clear the land of any natural resources so that construction can occur. To develop the land for construction, though, people must then clear and grub the land completely.²¹ Land clearing occurs when trees and other vegetation are cut away using mechanical tools. Grubbing occurs after clearing, when people use machines like excavators to completely remove any remnant of trees and other vegetation from the area, including everything from their stumps to their vast root systems, to prevent regrowth.²² This can often destabilize the soil and lead to erosion.²³ Forest botanicals like ginseng cannot exist in such a habitat, where the soil is so denuded that it can no longer grow plants.

What can you do to help protect forest botanicals?

This essay mostly discusses the actions of corporations that lead to the loss of habitats in Appalachia. However, we as everyday citizens can contribute to the protection of our forest botanicals. The list included below, which discusses advocacy and sustainable harvesting practices, comes from the Protecting Forest Botanicals page of the Forest Botanicals Region Living Monument.²⁴

• Advocate for the protection of forest habitat.
• Work with developers, logging and mining companies, and government agencies to organize plant rescue operations to relocate at-risk forest plants that will be destroyed.
• Start growing forest botanicals in a shady spot near your home!
• Remove invasive species that spread into wooded areas, including:
  • Garlic mustard
  • Japanese honeysuckle vine
  • Multiflora rose
  • Autumn olive
  • Asiatic bittersweet vine
  • Japanese barberry
  • Japanese stiltgrass
  • Japanese knotweed
  • Tree of heaven
  • Kudzu
• These non-native exotic plants grow aggressively and crowd out native species. Some (like garlic mustard) even release chemicals that kill nearby plants.
• Keep deer populations under control.
• Find substitutes for at-risk medicinal plants you use.
• If you do harvest from the wild, do it sustainably by:
  • Planting seeds you find and covering them with leaf litter.
  • Harvesting on a scale that will not lead to population declines over time.
  • Harvesting only the leaves when possible.
  • For plants that spread through root division, replanting a portion of each plant you harvest.