Burning harvested sites enhances polypore diversity on stumps and slash

Burned stumps hosted more polypores than unburned stumps, but burning had no effect on polypores on slash. Both stumps and slash hosted also some red-listed polypore species - more so, if the resource was burned. The results show that stumps and slash can be valuable substrates for wood-decaying fungi, including rare and red-listed species. We recommend avoiding full-scale, intensive stump and slash harvest e.g. for bioenergy, and to apply prescribed burnings on harvested sites, to enhance polypore diversity in managed forests.