Ground Moisture

[terry f]

   All things being equal, snowpack-rain-heat, which forest would have the most moisture in the ground at one, three, and five foot depths? Would a new clearcut have more moisture at 5', than a mature forest, since no roots are pulling moisture. I would assume a mature forest would have more at 1' than a young forest, just from shade. Is evaporation more of a factor, than the trees pulling the moisture out of the ground?

[MHineman]

  I'd have to say it will vary by the time of year, soil type, and species of trees.  So... no real help in answering your question, just more to think about towards an answer in your situation.

[SwampDonkey]

No hard rule. Take cedar stands (northern white). Sometimes you can cut one out and the water table rises and on other sites it gets dryer. ;D

[WDH]

Roots will pull out much more water than evaporation.  The amount of water roots can remove in a day is more than you would guess.  If the three forests were growing on the exact same soil, side by side by side, the one with the most amount of total vegetative biomass will remove the most water in the rooting zone.