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| "If you
just want that go-back-to-nature bullshit and you don't really
know what you're talking about, you can get a wide audience,"
he says. "But it doesn't make any sense. If you don't
want industrial forestry on the landscape, what do you want?
- Tom Bourland, Former employee of International Paper |
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| What
is an old-growth forest? Old-growth forests are
a unique, nearly vanished piece of New York's history and
ecology. They are the remnants of the plant life that once
covered vast areas of the state's forested regions, and
their harvest delivered immense wealth to individuals and
the government, speeding the development of the state's
early economy.
A benefit of old-growth forests is that they can be compared
to similar but harvested forests, and conclusions can be
reached about the effect of harvest on soils, plant and
animal life, the rate of tree growth, and many other parts
of a forest's ecology. This kind of research can help improve
forest management approaches aimed at supplying wood reliably
to the economy while guaranteeing a healthy ecosystem for
future harvest and enjoyment.
Old-growth forests are natural forests that have developed
over a long period of time, generally at least 120 years
without experiencing severe, stand-replacing disturbance--a
fire, windstorm, or logging. Old-growth forests may be dominated
by species that are capable of reproducing under a shaded
canopy. These old-growth forests can persist indefinitely.
Old-growth forest may also be dominated by species that
do not reproduce as well under shade and that require disturbance
to open the canopy. These old-growth forests will eventually
be replaced by the more shade tolerant tree species in the
absence of disturbance.
- Some trees are at least 120 years old (often at least
2-3 feet across).
- Large, dead standing trees and branches (snags) are
common.
- Large fallen trees and branches lie on the ground.
- The forest is a mix of young, old, and middle-aged
trees (multi-aged).
- Small openings (canopy gaps) are visible between the
tree crowns.
- Dirt piles and holes from tipped-over trees (tip-up
mounds and pits) dot the ground.
[portions taken from the Minnesota Deparment of Natural
Resources]
|
 Old
Growth Ecology (pdf) From the Silva Forest Foundation
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Forests
located in watersheds contribute in a number of ways to maintaining
local and downstream environmental conditions in a state conducive
to agriculture, and protective of human settlements.
Forests help stabilize soil, regulate water flow rates
and periodicity, maintain water quality, and, in the unique
case of cloud forests, capture additional water suppplies
from the atmosphere. |
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We
traditionally view forest ecosystems through the distorting
glasses of resource economists that reduce them to one familiar
form: cash cows for industry and government. So it is that
Canada has earned the title, "Lumberyard of the World."
Apart from their money-making timber, everything else forests
harmoniously embody and nurture in the way of diversity, watershed
protection, wildlife habitat, recreation, and natural landscape
beauty has been deemed of little value.
This wrong perspective needs to be changed and change is
on the way. As with all shifts in public perception, the
appropriate outlook is heralded by a higher vision, by encouraging
words at the political level (where the implications may
not be well understood), and by citizen-group action at
ground level. |
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Ninety-five
percent of the nation's native forests have been logged. Most
of the remaining five percent lie on public lands, but are
subject to taxpayer subsidized logging. The result: deforestation,
polluted drinking water and endangered species. Logging companies
claim the U.S. needs the lumber and jobs, but National Forests
supply less than four percent of U.S. demand. |
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What
is the value of old growth? Old-growth forests have rightly
been characterized as "the key" to biodiversity.
The invaluable roles they play include making unique contributions
to the gene pool; harboring native species; demonstrating
natural processes; and serving as cores for future large wilderness
areas and as nodes of biodiversity linked by corridors. |
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The
biodiversity preserved by ancient forests is a storehouse
of information: a memory bank of DNA, and species behavior
that is both learned and instinctive. When an old forest is
toppled, the information it contained is wiped away. Activists
protest the destruction of forests with signs that say"Respect
your elders." And baby, respecting your elders is a way
of respecting yourself. |
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The
old forests of the Pacific Northwest are critical reservoirs
of biodiversity. They contain a unique array of species not
found in younger forests. Older forests provide ecological
and economic benefits including critical habitat for threatened
wildlife such as the northern spotted owl and the marbled
murrelet, clean drinking water and flood control, carbon storage,
barriers against the spread of exotic plants and pests, and
unsurpassed opportunities for recreation and solitude. In
addition, these forests are symbols of a healthy regional
environment and are culturally important to the residents
of the Northwest. |
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Ancient
Forest is forest that has never been managed, or signifigantly
changed by humans, and it is increasingly rare and precious.
But quite apart from its beauty or spiritual value, untouched
forest gives us insights into how natural forests work. When
we manage forests we can never fully understand, or anticipate,
the outcome unless we can compare it to natural forest. Natural
forests also give us insight into how global changes in climate,
air pollution, diseases, and other wide-ranging changes are
affecting our forests. Ancient forests are a valuable asset
that have often recieved surprisingly little study, and are
fast being lost. |
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"Certainly,
one option should always be, what happens if we just let
it alone and let it resort to its fully natural state? A
forest left alone and allowed over time to become something
approximating what was here before settlement is the best
of all possible worlds." - Bob Irwin, Conservation
Director, World Wildlife Fund |
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