Years ago before the internet, the term I used to hear from time to time was "virgin" forest, i.e., forest that was never cut by humans as far as anyone knows. So way back in 1979 and 1981 when I visited Word of Life Island in the Adirondacks, the Word of Life people used to say that the Island consisted of virgin forest. This of course is the island with the big white pine that died a few years back that I was so enamored with. The only reason it was mentioned was because of that giant white pine there, which they were quite proud of. (As for the Island being old growth, that makes sense, since it was a private estate, and didn't exist for the purposes of being timberland.) Barry
--- On Sat, 8/29/09, Edward Frank <[email protected]> wrote: From: Edward Frank <[email protected]> Subject: [ENTS] Re: Types of old growth forest? To: [email protected] Date: Saturday, August 29, 2009, 4:39 PM Gary, Actually this is an interesting approach you are suggesting, but much more work would need to be done. Even within the same geographic area there can be old growth with dramatically different characteristics. There are many variables not the least of which are the species present and the growing conditions under which they are found. Old growth is not really a scientific designation, but one that is anthropomorphic. That does not mean it is not a valid or useful designation, but that there is not any clear-cut boundaries. In general old growth forests can be thought of as having several characteristics. One of these characteristics is the presence of trees that are old, or at least old for the species. A forest that has not been cut or has been cut very selectively, can be considered an old growth forest. Generally within the forest there are trees of different ages because over time different sections of the forest are affected by different large and small scale effects. A designation that is dependant on purely an age criteria might be fine for a particular forest, but would not work for another with different tree assemblages. A forest that requires so many old trees per acre is not appropriate because essentially different tree species take up differing amounts of ground space and have different population densities. Different environments can lead to different densities of trees. It would not be unreasonable if an assemblage of trees on one site were considered old growth, while a similar assemblage with the same age distribution on another site was not considered old growth because of a lower overall density of trees. Say there was a broadly spaced group of old pines, and the area is subject to frequent fires. The age of the trees between the pines may be much younger than the large pines, but still it is an old growth forest because there are old pines present. Different growing conditions will affect how bug a tree may grow. An assemblage of stunted trees that are old is just as much an old growth forest as is an assemblage of larger trees. There are many old growth forests across the country that are not recognized as such simply because the trees are stunted and not spectacular. The other factor that should be considered when looking at old growth is the state of the other forests to which it is being compared. With pollution, invasive insects, blights, and diseases, and other human activities affecting even forests that have not been cut, there must be the realization that virtually no forests have not been impacted directly or indirectly by human activities. So therefore there must a consideration of how much impact is acceptable for a forest to still be considered old growth. In many areas of the west with large tracts of relatively undisturbed forest, there might be a one threshold needed for something to be considered old growth, while in an eastern state that was essentially cut flat in the past 150 years, a more heavily impacted forest might still be considered for designation or protection as old growth. I am emailing you separately an article on the subject that you might find interesting. Ed Frank "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science." - Albert Einstein ----- Original Message ----- From: Gary Reif To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2009 2:07 PM Subject: [ENTS] Types of old growth forest? Are there different categories of old growth? There seem to be a few instances that are very different and might be nice to categorize. 1) Eastern old growth (geographical) 2) Western old growth (near ocean) 2) Mountain top/treeline (altitude) 3) Redwood/sequoia (species/genus) Other types? gr --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
