{"id":197619,"date":"2024-09-17T18:31:20","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T01:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=197619"},"modified":"2025-02-04T07:54:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T15:54:44","slug":"old-growth-forests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/hike\/old-growth-forests","title":{"rendered":"What Are Old-Growth Forests?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a certified forest therapy guide<\/a> who helps people experience how healing immersion in nature can be, I often invite my forest bathing participants to share an experience with an old tree. Some recall being awed after standing next to or craning their necks to look at the top of one of California\u2019s towering coastal Redwoods. Others remember the impossibility of wrapping their arms around an almost 300-year-old hemlock tree in Pennsylvania\u2019s Allegheny National Forest. Still others recall the dappled light shining down on them through skyscraper-like tree canopies. 
 
The definition of \u201cold growth\u201d varies depending on the organization and context. The Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service define old growth for pinyon and juniper woodlands as 150 years and older, for example. Experts agree that, regardless of the tree species, old-growth forests have developed over long periods, often centuries, without significant disturbance by human activity. They\u2019ve been shaped by natural ecological processes like floods, fires, strong winds and the death of old trees.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But old-growth forests contain<\/a> more than just long-lived trees. They are natural mosaics that include young- and middle-aged timber that create multilayered canopies, fallen “nurse” logs<\/a> that host the next generation of seedlings, organically rich soil and a diverse shade-tolerant plant understory. You\u2019ll also find <\/a>dead-standing trees called “snags<\/a>,” that provide animals with shelter and lookout points and fallen trunks that create “canopy gaps<\/a>” that help establish new trees and plants, maintain habitat diversity and drive crucial long-term regenerative processes that create resilient forests. (Mature forests are so-called when they begin displaying many of these same attributes, according to the U.S. Forest Service<\/a>: \u201cThe mature stage \u2026 generally begins when a forest stand moves beyond self-thinning, starts to diversify in height and structure, and\/or the understory begins to reinitiate.\u201d)  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mount Baker\u2013Snoqualmie National Forest. Photo credit: Dustin Kingman<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Benefits of Old-Growth Forests<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Old-growth forests are examples of the power of diversity to create resilient ecosystems. Here are some ways they benefit human and ecological well-being: <\/p>\n\n\n\n