Defining Old Growth: Implications For Management

Abstract

USDA Forest Service (USFS), with the help of scientists from The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Forest Service Research and ther organizations, is developing old-growth definitions for 35 forest types within the Eastern United States (U.S.). Old-growth forests were officially recognized as a resource by the USFS in 1988 and shortly thereafter, the Eastern Old-Growth Definition Project began. Initially, an old-growth task group drafied a generic definition that stated: "Old-growth forests are ecosystems distinguished by old trees and related structural attributes. Old growth encompasses the later stages of stand development that typically differ from earlier stages in a variety of characteristics which may include tree size, accumulations of large dead woody material, number of canopy layers, species composition, and ecosystem function." The primary objective of the project was to describe current knowledge about broad forest types and identify gaps in that knowledge.

Citation

White, David L.; Lloyd, F. Thomas. 1994. Defining Old Growth: Implications For Management. Paper presented at the Eighth Biennial Southern Silvicultural Research Conference, Auburn, AL, Nov. l-3, 1994.