Moss Harvest II

Once you know what to look for, harvested stems are increasingly common.  Natural disturbances come in two forms:  falling trees or limbs rub off a mat, leaving irregularly shaped bald spots where the mats once grew (typically on red alder boles), or trees fall and completely squash an understory shrub, taking all the moss with it.  The tell-tale sign of harvest, on the other hand, is when whole clumps of stems or limbs are stripped clean without any damage to the host or any moss on the ground.

To make it easier, here's how the stem looks before and after a chunk of harvestable moss is removed.  Commercial harvesters wouldn't take just this little bit--odds are the whole stem would be bare.

Sometimes you can tell where harvest has taken place years ago; the upper portions of this vine maple (just beyond reach) have fat moss mats, while only a thin layer of regrowth exists down below.  Judging from the depth and species composition of the regrowth, this shrub was probably harvested 10-15 years before I found it.

So, what happens to the moss after harvest?