Refers to a forested area with trees that are more than 40 inches in circumference. These trees are often hundreds of years old, but size, not age, is more important in the old growth classification.
Old forests often containing several canopy layers, variety in tree sizes and species, trees at least 180 to 220 years old, and standing and dead woody material.
Old-growth or ancient forests are forest lands that have not been harvested or in any other way altered by people. Of the estimated 2 million acres of coast redwood forest shortly after the arrival of the Europeans, less than 4% are now uncut. An old-growth stand is usually well past the age of maturity as defined by the culmination of mean annual increment. It often exhibits characteristics of decadence. Example: low growth rates, dead and dying trees, snags, and down woody material. The stands usually contain large-diameter trees relative to species and site potential, multi-layered canopies, a range in tree-diameter sizes, and the presence of understory vegetation. Some documents specify a lower limit on size; for example Michael Barbour et al. in Coast Redwood: A Natural and Cultural History state that old-growth redwoods exceed 200 feet high and 40 inches in diameter.
old growth is a forest that contains live and dead trees of various sizes, species, composition, and age class structure. Old-growth forests, as part of a slowly changing but dynamic ecosystem, include climax forests but not sub-climax or mid-seral forests. The age and structure of old growth varies significantly by forest type and from one biogeoclimatic zone to another.
A forest that has never been changed by management or harvesting. This term is misapplied by many to describe any forest that appears to be old. Individual trees in this type of forest are usually over 200 years old, and there are large standing and fallen dead trees throughout the stand.
A forest of mature or over mature timber that is beyond its peak growing period.
undisturbed primary forest, typically diverse in species and age of constituents, and is a result of competition and long-time natural selection
forest or woodland having a mature or overly mature ecosystem more or less uninfluenced by human activity
Biologically, a stand of timber that is near its climax; such trees may be 200 years old or more. In timber management planning, old growth also refers to timber that is older than the rotation age planned for future forests; this definition may include trees that are 100 years of age, or less.
Also referred to as " Virgin Timber", this is old, naturally established trees often characterized by dense straight grain and lack of knots and defects.
Timber growing in, or harvested from a mature, naturally established forest. When the trees have grown most or all of their individual lives in active competition with their companions for sunlight and moisture. There is no such thing as " original growth." Trees are much like....with age and disease they die.
Timber stands with the following characteristics: large mature and over-mature trees in the overstory, snags, dead and decaying logs on the ground, and a multi-layered canopy with trees of several age classes.
Timber in or from a mature, naturally established forest. When the trees have grown during most if not all of their individual lives in active competition with their companions for sunlight and moisture, this timber is usually straight and relatively free of knots.
(Virgin Timber) Old, naturally established trees often characterized by dense straight grain and a lack of knots and defects.
forest A forest stand usually at least 180-220 years old with moderate to high canopy closure; a multilayered, multispecies canopy dominated by large overstory trees; high incidence of large trees, some with broken tops and other indications of old and decaying wood (decadence); numerous large snags; and heavy accumulations of wood, including large logs on the ground. ( FEMAT, IX-24) (Also see definitions of Old Growth Forest)
A mature forest which has not been disturbed by human activity. Also known as virgin forest. An increasingly rare, and increasingly valued, element of the wilderness. The lumbermen see it as something else, as evidenced in this not-so-subtle definition from an industry web site: Old Growth Forest: Forest stands in which the dominant cover types are mature or over-mature trees that have reached their maximum size. No harvest has occurred among these large, old trees and dead and fallen trees are as common as standing trees.
