By Ken Bevis, Stewardship Wildlife Biologist, Washington State Department of Natural Resources, ken.bevis@dnr.wa.gov
“Keep forests as forests.” This is one of the objectives for various stewardship forestry programs throughout the state, including Washington State University Extension Forestry and our program at the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. The values for people found on these lands that serve all of us, as well as the landowners, are extensive.
In Washington, we have about 3.2 million acres of small private forestlands owned by about 219,000 families and individuals. These lands are an integral part of the greater landscape and provide enormous benefits for everyone. These benefits are collectively known as “ecosystem services.” This is one way to describe and demonstrate the actual value of forests, as well as their intrinsic value.
Ecosystem services have been divided into some basic categories. There are “provisional services,” which refer to materials we use from a forest, such as wood, food, and other forest products. “Cultural services” refer to the spiritual, recreational, and aesthetic values of forests. “Regulating benefits” encompass the ways that forests moderate or facilitate important resources for society, such as clean water and air, carbon sequestration, and pollination. The last category is “support services,” which refers to important ecosystem functions whose benefits are difficult to quantify but are intrinsically invaluable to society, such as soil formation, water cycles, and nutrient cycling. Wildlife on forestlands provide direct and tangible benefits to landowners in all of these categories.
Many of the social and cultural benefits are aesthetic and make us feel good. We enjoy seeing a hawk or an owl, or a deer with her twin fawns. We marvel at the salamander in the leaf mulch. A glimpse of a cougar or bobcat is a life highlight. Our lives are generally enriched from the presence of wildlife, and knowing they are there. Providing habitat to enable wildlife to thrive is one of the great satisfactions from owning forestland.
Wildlife can provide tangible goods, too, particularly in the form of meat or pelts. Although the number of hunters has declined in recent years, it is still an important activity on forestlands. Deer, elk, bear, and grouse live in forest habitats and are harvested by hunters for their meat. Beaver, bobcat or marten are sometimes trapped for their pelts. Tangible goods in the form of food are an ecosystem service from wildlife.
Wildlife can provide important regulating and support functions, too. For example, Douglas and red squirrels enable tree dispersal by losing a few of their cached cones. Clark’s nutcrackers actually plant seeds of pines on open ridges and mountaintops. Beaver create wetlands that raise water tables and provide habitat for a myriad of species. Slugs (yes, they are wildlife!) break down dead plant material and help with nutrient cycling and soil building. Gophers aerate the soil with their burrow systems. Wildlife can have key roles in many ecosystem functions. I bet you can think of a few more.
Having forests on the landscape benefits all of society in a myriad of ways, and many programs, including WSU Forestry Extension (and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources’ Forest Stewardship Program), are directed to assist landowners with land management questions and solutions. Thinking about our forests in terms of ecosystem services broadens and specifies our appreciation for our lands and our determination to keep forests as forests.
Send me your best example of a wildlife-based ecosystem service at ken.bevis@dnr.wa.gov!
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