East coast we did the same thing. there are less than a few thousand acres of old-growth forest left on the entire east coast.
Most was clearcut and burned in colonial through Victorian times. As the west was settled, and we moved from farming to industry and bedrooms, a lot of the countryside returned to a more natural state, but 100 year old trees are noticed and scarce. There are more 100 year ornamentals in yards than 100 year old trees in forest stands. I have a page from a cooper's apprentice diary from the 1740s, where he noted he would not try to make a barrel from an oak tree that was less than 10 feet in diameter, and if a 10 foot high crosscut piece couldn't be split clean through and straight with a single wedge blow. Anything less was firewood. The only place on earth that still has those sort of oaks are the forests of Poland. On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 1:50 PM, Judah McAuley <[email protected]> wrote: > > I don't imagine that Jerry or Sam care, but when people are talking about > 4% of the original forest left, they aren't talking about giant tree-less > areas, they genuinely mean the original forest, those specific trees. > > I'm not very familiar with forest ecosystems in the eastern part of the US, > but here on the west coast, individual forest segments last hundreds of > years. We have many spots in Oregon where the natural fire regime goes 400 > years or more without a major fire. 200 year old trees are really different > than 20 year old trees. The whole ecosystem around them is really > different. > > The history of logging in the pacific northwest is that we've cut down a > whole lot of several hundred year old trees and replaced them with trees > that get cut every 50 years. That's starting to change in the last decade > or so but when they say that there is only 4% of the original forest left, > that's what they mean. The forest isn't just the trees and there are very > few spots left that have an ecosystem defined by an intact community > defined by our big, old trees and all the plants and animals that depend on > it. > > The ones that are left, however, are truly inspiring., > > Judah > > > On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 9:49 AM, Jerry Barnes <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > "Ooops. More forest now than in 1920?" > > > > That's just the tip of the iceberg. That video is so full of lies, > > deception, misused stats, and so on that it should be criminal to show > it. > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:361590 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
