WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:00:18 — 55.2MB)
Host Doug Storm is joined by Myke Luurtsema, the Hoosier Forest Watch Coordinator for the Indiana Forest Alliance (IFA), and Ron Kerner, a mushroom expert who runs the website Indiana Mushrooms.
This is Part II of our discussion about commercial logging and forest health in the Indiana state forests. Part I was a conversation that took place on September 9th with the Director of the Division of Forestry, John Seifert.
The discussion centers on the assertion that the Forestry Division treats the forest as a kind of agricultural crop and chooses to implement methods that value the tree by its harvest value (silviculture). We also discuss the ways that clear cutting or “regenerative openings” disturb habitat and disrupt ecosystem health. One feature of this is the vital symbiotic role that healthy fungi play in the growth of forests. A final topic is the IFA’s campaign to create State Wild Areas in our state forests.
Where John Seifert makes claims for the benefit of introducing sunlight to enhance diversity (through “regenerative openings”)–“sunlight drives the system”–Luurtsema claims “sunlight drives the crop tree while mortality drives the ecosystem.”
Credits:
Producer & Host: Doug Storm
Board Engineer: Carissa Barrett
Executive Producer: Alycin Bektesh
