Joe- Of course, defining old-growth precedes being able to answer your question...but by some definitions, 100% of the Eastern forests would have been old-growth. Those would be definitions that include the role of natural disturbance regimes play in forming an old-growth ecosystems...to the extent that the natural disturbance cycles are so frequent that they prevent existing tree species/plant communities from fully developing, it would seem appropriate to reset the 100% estimate. What would they look like? Diversity...heterogeneity of forest structure and composition, multi-scalar landscape dimensions, that'd be my guess... -Don
From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: [ENTS] Re: Kalanu Prong, Greenbrier, TN GRSM 4-21-2009 Date: Sat, 2 May 2009 09:21:14 -0400 Question for Bob and Will and the others. Roughly speaking, what percentage of the forests of the East - if we could go back a millennium- would appear to us as "old growth"?? Of course there have always been fires, storms, clearings for villages, etc. I'm just trying to get a sense- if we could go back and wander around the forests- would they be filled with gigantic trees, thus looking very different from now, or not? Joe ----- Original Message ----- From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, May 02, 2009 9:11 AM Subject: [ENTS] Re: Kalanu Prong, Greenbrier, TN GRSM 4-21-2009 Will, A phenomenal report as usual. It would be great to have a list of all the 20-foot circumference trees in the Smokies. Information in email communications becomes too scattered. Anyway, thanks for the great reports. Bob _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail® goes with you. http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Mobile?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Mobile1_052009 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
