Giving Compass' Take:

• Pacific Standard writes on new research that shows the detrimental effects logging and fires cause to forest soil and the impact on our forests eco-system. 

• What can environmental funders do to help protect our world’s forests? How can we drive emphasis on the importance of healthy soil quality?

• Here’s why restoring forests is investable thanks to new tech and political urgency.

According to Elle Bowd, a researcher with Australian National University's Fenner School of Environment and Society, there have been very few studies about the long-term impacts of disturbances like wildfires and logging on forest soils.

Based on what research has been done, we know that post-fire ash can inject large amounts of nutrients that plants need for growth, like phosphorus and nitrogen, into forest soils immediately after a fire. "But [we] know little about what happens eight or 34 years after logging or eight to 167 years after a bush fire to soils, despite their ongoing functional roles," Bowd says.

To fill this gap in our understanding of how long it takes forest soils to recover from disturbance, Bowd led a research team that collected 729 soil cores from 81 sites in the mountain ash forests of southeast Australia.

Read the full article on how damaging fires and logging are to forest soil by Mike Gaworecki at Pacific Standard.