year in the clearcut sites, contrasted with the steady numbers at the reference site. All surveys were nocturnal and following rainfall, when moisture levels were high; therefore it is unlikely the decreased numbers at the clearcut site were solely due to reduced surface activity following the habitat alteration. Rather, the population decline must be attributed to emigration from the clearcut zones, mortality, or some combination of the two. Significantly, the juvenile proportion of the population two years after timbering was much smaller in both the clearcut and shelterwood treatments than at the reference sites. This effect is attributed to the reduction in shade and soil moisture with canopy loss having a more marked impact on smaller juvenile animals, due to their larger surface area to volume ratio, which increased their susceptibility to desiccation. In summary, clearcutting was shown to have a significant deleterious effect on P. hubrichti populations in the short term, while shelterwood cuts were not injurious overall. Because of the impact clearcutting has on not only the Peaks of Otter Salamander, but also the forest in general,Seastedt, T.R. and D.A. Crossley. 1981. Microarthropod response following cable logging and clear-cutting in the southern Appalachians. Ecology 62:126-135. the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest Service no longer permits clearcutting on the land they manage. Long-term timbering impacts A long-term (12-year) study continuing the work of Sattler and Reichenbach (1998) was conducted to assess population trends on a larger time scale. The same treatment sites and study methods were used. Two years after timbering, the numbers of surface-active animals on the clearcut sites had dropped to 25% of levels before timbering. The population did not begin to recover until five years after timbering, and finally stabilized at only 55% of before-timbering levels. Timbering on the shelterwood sites was ultimately not shown to have a significant long-term impact on P. hubrichti populations. As discussed for short-term timbering effects, population declines in clearcut sites may be attributed to mortality, emigration, or some combination of the two. Immediately after timbering, 41% of the salamanders relocated from transects established at the edge of clearcuts to reference transects that were 3–9 m distant. This was surprising, since Plethodon salamanders are highly philopatric, not typically emigrating long distances under normal circumstances, and P. hubrichti typically has a home range of <1 m2, It is not known if the salamanders would be capable of moving much longer distances