Effects of postfire logging on soil and vegetation recovery in a Pinus halepensis Mill. forest of Greece Ioannis Spanos 1,3 , Yannis Raftoyannis 2 , Gerasimos Goudelis 2 , Eleni Xanthopoulou 1 , Theano Samara 1 & Alexandros Tsiontsis 1 1 NAGREF, Forest Research Institute, 57006, Vassilika, Thessaloniki, Greece. 2 Department of Forestry, TEI Lamias, Karpenisi, Greece. 3 Corresponding author* Received 8 October 2004. Accepted in revised form 17 January 2005 Key words: log removal, plant regeneration, postfire management, sediment loss, seedling emergence Abstract After a wildfire in a Pinus halepensis Mill. forest, in northern Greece, the burned trees were logged and the logs were removed either by mechanical or animal traction. The effects of logging and log removal methods on soil and vegetation recovery were evaluated comparing the logged sites with a burned but unlogged site and the unburned forest. Fire and logging did not affect the soil pH and caused only a short-term reduction in organic matter content. Two years after the fire, the highest rates of soil loss were observed in the logged area where mules were used for log removal. Soil moisture showed some differences between treatments during the first year after fire but then values were similar. Logging and particularly the use of skidders for log removal caused an initial increase in the amount of exposed bare ground but later when vegetation cover increased differences were minimized. The main woody species showed a species specific response to the treatments and while seeder species were favoured in the unlogged sites the same was not true for the respouters. In general, the growth and survival of pine seedlings was not affected by treatments. Introduction Mediterranean pine forests suffer from wildfires and have adapted to regenerate naturally after a fire (Naveh, 1975; NeÕeman, 1997; Thanos and Doussi, 2000; Trabaud, 1987). Wildfires remove the plant cover and litter layer, which play a major role in the prevention of soil erosion caused by raindrop impact and overland flow, and increase soil vulnerability to erosion processes by altering soil physical and chemical properties (DeBano et al., 1998; Soto et al., 1991). The environmental effects of postfire manage- ment depend on several specific features of burned stands, including the intensity of the burn, slope, soil texture and composition, the presence or build- ing of roads, and postfire weather conditions. Activity effects of logging systems occur within the context of these site-specific factors (McIver and Starr, 2000). Forest fires have become common in Greece and when productive forests are burned the stan- dard policy is to harvest these trees. However this practice has caused a debate among land managers. Proponents argue that except from the obvious economic return from logging, there are also positive ecological effects such as reduction of erosion due to the scattered logging slash, reduc- tion of fuel loads, reduction of pest populations, increased water infiltration and better conditions for plant regeneration. Opponents of postfire log- ging argue that the practice increases soil erosion, damages soil processes by compaction and * FAX No: +30-2310-461341. E-mail: ispanos@fri.gr Plant and Soil (2005) 278:171–179 Ó Springer 2005 DOI 10.1007/s11104-005-0807-9