The influence of grass plantation harvesting to soil in relation to sustainable forest management

Abstract

Wanagama’s success in rehabilitating forests with the community is a mutually beneficial relationship between the community and Wanagama. Farmers are allowed to take grass to meet their animal feed needs. Harvesting grass will have an impact on changing the physical and chemical properties of the soil. This research aimed to analyse the soil properties at the grass plantation and at the area of post grass harvesting. Also, aimed to relate the impact of the grass harvesting with sustainable forest management. Soil samples were taken from the field randomly both at the three areas of grass plantation and post harvesting. It is located at the upper, middle, and lower area of a slope with 3 replications. The soil samples then were brought to the laboratory to analyse. The result showed that all of the soil have the texture of clay with the clay content varies from 48.33 to 76.3%. The bulk density and particle density are also various that are 1.09 - 1.55 and 1.8 - 1.99 respectively. Soil porosity ranges from 13.89 to 43.52 % which is considered as moderate. The soil permeability is mostly considered as slow and the soil organic matter content of 3.26 - 7.66 %. In general, grass harvesting does not change the soil properties so, it remains the sustainability of the soil.