Your woodlot is part of a watershed, and therefore affects the quantity and quality of our water. As a woodlot owner, you have a responsibility to protect the water resource. The other half flows away. Forests are able to keep this flow even by holding water in the soil. The held water is gradually released during dry periods and recharged during wet periods.
Forests require sunlight, water, and nutrients.
The sun is renewed daily. The water is renewed with the next rainstorm. The nutrients are renewed slowly over many years from the air and rocks. For this reason, the forest needs to continuously recycle its nutrients to remain vigorous. When the leaves and the branches fall back to the ground, they return their nutrients to the soil for other trees to use.