The Age of Our Trees

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Old growth fixes more carbon

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Lumbermen will likely point to the last column in making their argument that the pine’s fast growth occurs in the first 50 years. An increase in volume of 807% from age 25 to age 50 is hard to argue with. Doesn’t that prove their case? Not really. Look at the column entitled ‘Absolute gain during period – ft3’. The largest 50-year volume gain is between 100 and 150 years, and even the gain between 150 and 200 years is over twice what it was in the first 50 years. It is the absolute gains that make the climatic difference.

The big pines are the ones possessing a large surface area of needles, which is where the photosynthesis takes place.

History of New England forests video

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Natives would burn the forest understory to make the forest more walkable, and to promote the graoth of berry bushes and nut-bearing trees. This likely only occurred along the coasts and river valleys, but there isn’t mush concrete evidence to support or refute this claim.

Early settlers clear cut small plots of froest for homesteads, crop fields, hay fields, etc.

In 1650s the King of England declared that all white pines 24” or more in diameter were to be reserved for making ship masts for the British Navy

6:00 1810-1845 “Sheep fever” in central New England - a “wool growing mania”

Napoleon’s war with Spain meant that Spain could no longer enforce their embargo on Merino sheep, which had the best wool. 4000 sheep were smuggled to New England and it was on.

War of 1812 brought tariffs against wool importage, giving an advantage to domestic wool production

1814 power loom invented

Lots of rivers for water power

from 1810 to 1845, the landscape (< 2000 ft elevation) in central New England went from 20% to 80% deforested

that’s why there are so many stone walls here! (photo of stone walls)

in mid 1800’s farmers gave up on the rocky soil of central New England and headed to the Ohio valley, leaving the clear cut land to seed in with mostly white pines

60 years later in 1910s, loggers harvested intensively those 2nd-growth white pines and the land was reseeded with hardwoods

The land that can best support thriving old-growth forest is also the best land for agriculture

river valley, gentle slopes with deep soils

Very little old growth survived into the 20th century

Todays forests (recovered from clear cutting in the 1800s) are harvested often, most privately owned forests are ~70 yrs old and public ~120 yrs

80-90% of Massachusetts was old-growth prior to European settlement—today, it is only 0.1%

Oldest tree species are hemlock, beech, sugar maple, and sometimes white pine

Most remaining old growth is at high elevation, saved from logging by steep terain and large boulders

Old growth characteristics

Old growth forests have many differently aged trees within them, mostly young trees and less old ones

Not all large trees are old and not all old trees are large

20:54 Tree bark can vary widely in texture and appearance as the trees get older (photo of tree barks)

When a tree gets to 80 years of age half of it stored carbon is below the soil, sequestered from the air and supporting incredibly diverse soil communities

Squishy soil is immediately noticeable

The crown of old trees has thick limbs, not wispy new twigs like young trees

The crowns of old trees are ragged and asymmetric due to preferential growth into new canopy space that is randomly created via tree fall events. Trees grow towards available light, so old growth forests have many crooked and snaking truck shapes.

Young forests (second-growth) look way more smooth and even in their canopy texture, with straight-growing trees due to all trees growing from seed at once.

Fallen logs can nurse small-seeded trees like yellow birch. The small seeds don’t store enough energy to penetrate roots through the leaf/duff layer, but can germinate well on the soft and uncovered nurse logs. Wind-blown uprooted trees will pull up a ball of dirt, where birches can also germinate. (photo of root ball)

Dead wood, high moisture, and shade cover allows OG forests to harbor an incredible amount of diverse species

Blackgum swamp tree is very cool and spooky looking

They naturally hollow out a lot, making them a great home for honeybees

Very VERY coarse bark

Shade-tolerant species end up dominating forest canopies

Natural tree death

Broken/blown down

Decay

Mycorrhizal networks are incredibly important but fragile, and take many decades to recover

Eastern Hemlock

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