1 / Where are all the large dead down in BC forests?!

Large dead down are trees 24" in diameter or larger that lay on the forest floor for centuries.

Since the advent of machine logging they have largely been erased from the landscape, pushed into slash piles and burned into the atmosphere.

As fungus enter these giant plants to help them decompose, they increase exponentially in their ability to store water. Additionally the underside of these horizontal masses shade the earth which also maintains humidity along the soil horizon. If these masses of carbon lay level along the contour, they slow, spread and soak moisture coming off the landscape during snow melt and rain events.

SSOCs (Slash Swales On Contour) are one way we can bio-mimic these large dead-down trees that industrial forestry has pushed into slash piles and burned over the past century.

2 / Trees as Large Dead-Down Moisture Batteries

How to store moisture in the forest farm landscape using perennial coarse woody material. AKA trees. Take note how scarified/baked the landscape soil horizon is around this ancient large dead-down tree. Notice the only place moisture is concentrated.