What is Duff? How does it benefit the forest floor and contribute to a healthy forest ecosystem? These are all good questions which we will define and discuss in an attempt to help you understand how Duff plays a critical role in sustaining a healthy forest.   

First let's define “duff”. It is a layer of natural organic material that builds up on the forest floor and provides a safe barrier for tree roots specifically in Central Oregon. The duff helps to feed the trees and allows for water to be absorbed and filtered slowly down through the layers of soil into the tree roots. This process of slow bio-degrading of natural forest floor materials, duff, feeds the forest and trees which allows the forest to maintain a healthy balanced ecosystem. If allowed to main its natural bio-degraded process, prescribed burns would no longer be necessary as the forest floor would provide all the nutrients necessary to maintain a healthy forest. Think of duff as a natural sponge collecting rain water and then slowly filtering it through the layers into the tree roots system feeding the trees and surrounding ecosystem.

We manage this duff filter by thinning the smaller competing trees from older larger trees to allow for the maximum nutrients of this duff to reach the root system of the older growth trees which allows the more mature trees to survive and receive all the nutrients necessarily for survival. By nurturing the duff we can help develop the forest health and maturity overtime and continue to feed the duff filter system. 

You may be asking why this is so important and why should we spend so much time nurturing the “duff'. This is important because organic nutrients, duff, provides the trees with six times more ability to absorb water than clay which we don’t have here in Central Oregon. As a result, when we nurture the “duff' we have the potential of growing 10 times more trees! I hope it’s becoming obvious just how important the organic duff plays a part in a healthy forest ecosystem. This in turn sequesters more carbon 10 times faster than mother nature ever could. So, we get the double benefit of healthier forests and carbon sequestering all in one simple act of nurturing the natural forest floor “duff”. 


Instead of burning, which reduces the water retention of the forest floor and destroys the natural “duff”, we can manage the forest floor through planned thinning. A by product of the process of planned thinning, is the creation of natural mulch. This natural mulch is a product of brush, dead limbs and tree debris that are a result of thinning that have been ground into the forest floor. This natural mulch also feeds the trees and forest floor with nutrients and makes 10 times more water available than mother nature ever could. Let's make no mistake, mother nature WILL clean up her forrest eventually and thin her forest, if man didn’t interfere, through natural wildfires, disease and bug infestation. All of which is the natural cycle of the forest ecology. But at the current state of the forests, it would take 1,000 years and can’t be done because of human interference. 

Unfortunately, we don't have 1000 years to wait for Mother Nature, so our job now is to step in and assist the forest in bringing balance back to the forest floor. This entails, nurturing and building the natural duff and it's organics, thinning carbon sequestering trees and assisting the forest new growth by planned thinning in areas that are overcrowded.