Thursday, March 15, 2018

New Film: The Lost Forests of New England

New England has experienced a vast manipulation of its once-virgin forest lands in a relatively short period of time. There has been an almost complete turnover in forest cover since the arrival of the first European settlers.

Upon the retreat of the Laurentide ice sheet (which had smothered the land under thousands of feet of glacial ice for thousands of years, eliminating all life under it), plants and animals migrated northward to re-establish New England forests. This occurred approximately fourteen to fifteen thousand years ago.


New England's Old Growth Forests


The composition of the forest here has changed since that time, the species varying with warming climate. By the time the first Europeans arrived, New England was largely covered by primeval forest. In some areas, Native Americans had already altered forests, for several reasons. But the forest had never been rapaciously exploited as it would be post-settlement.
White Pines







The current forest cover we now enjoy is not what it was 350 years ago.

We, perhaps as recreational users, may find today's New England forests to be attractive in many ways, and doing just fine. But is that just because they're all we know? Are we impressed by stands of 10-inch diameter poles, all the same age? Are multi-trunked, coppiced trees the norm in a forest? Why is that grove of Norway spruce there? Why do all those hemlock trees have so few needles? Why are the beech tree trunks covered with blisters?

Do we know what primitive, old-growth New England forests looked like? Those are long gone, aren't they?

Well, yes they are. And that's truly a sad thing to contemplate. But wait-- there are a few small patches of old growth forest still in existence in New England, as hard as it may be to believe. I was literally thrilled to learn that, some thirty years ago, when I went on my first hike with Bob Leverett (I don't think he had much choice in the matter... I had to see these places!). Bob has led the charge in Massachusetts (and much of the rest of the country) to rediscover, measure,  and document remnant old growth forests. I don't know how he's managed to cover as much ground as he has, but I'm truly grateful for his pursuits. He wore out a couple knees in the effort though.

A few years ago, it was becoming apparent to Bob and me, and some others,  that these remaining old stands, with their characteristics of age and almost mystical ambience, needed to be revered, studied, and most of all... preserved and protected. That led to the idea of a film to document our old growth woodlands. But there was a dilemma... these ancient forests are small fragments of what once was, and as such are vulnerable to loss from ignorance of their value and ecological import. They could disappear literally in a matter of a day or two. To be protected, their existence must be known to those who would care enough about them to be vigilant (that would be you). But the other side of that coin is that sometimes, attention by too many well-meaning enthusiasts results in a place succumbing to "too much love". That put us in a tight spot... we wanted to see these remnants protected forever, but not at the cost of losing them to heavy traffic!

Well, the film is now done. We chose to not readily identify specific locations, so as not to promote undue visitation. That may strike some as elitist; we felt it was the best course to take.

Preserving Remnant Old Growth Forests



The reasons for the need to preserve our only bits of unmanaged, old growth forests are many; they give us a benchmark to compare with what we do to managed forests; they preserve valuable genetic material; they are the best forests that nature can produce in their particular sites; they are complex ecosystems (versus the simplified ones of managed woodlands); so far, they've mostly resisted non-native species invasions. There are more reasons. But one I find to be quite important (no... required) for own my well-being, is the knowledge that such places really do still exist, unspoiled by human exploitation, free of litter, and inhabited by a variety of organisms that belong there just as much as we do.


The film discusses the forests experienced by the first Europeans who saw them and what transpired after settlers took to the land, to the present day explorers and scientists who have rediscovered some real treasures. Featured are a number of prominent ecologists who have studied our old growth remnants.

You can view the film on our New England Forests channel (Youtube), or in the viewer below (may not be available in email feeds).

Please do convey your thoughts about it in the comments section here, and/or on the channel.                                     

        




9 comments:

  1. Great film, guys! It's great to see what remains, albeit little, of old growth in Massachusetts. Would you be interested in making a film, or at least an article, on old growth american beeches at some point? I'd love to see something about them!

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  2. Hi, thanks for watching the film, and for your comments. Beeches are quite beautiful (and important!) trees. Sadly though, they're in serious decline throughout at least New England, due to the so-called Nova Scotia beech bark blight. It's getting quite difficult to find old healthy, large beeches in central New England, so making a film about them would be a real challenge, which is a disheartening thing to say. But I'll keep the suggestion on my list... maybe at least a blog article about them can be done. Thanks for the suggestion!
    -Ray

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  3. Thanks for your reply. I would think that's even more reason to make a film about them, especially if we're likely to lose most of our old growth ones quite soon. I'm sure there are a number of areas where there are still healthy large beeches throughout New England, here in eastern New York there are very few large beeches, well actually very few beeches entirely, that you can see from most roads, yet there are many large 200+ year old trees on my property. I'm sure there are still patches of large beeches throughout New England.

    Looking forward to seeing something about these magnificent trees,
    Joshua

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    1. Joshua,

      Old growth forest remnants are not abundant in New England, and grand old beeches are even less so, at least in my experience. But, as it happens, several of us are headed to the Adirondacks shortly, where there's much more ancient forest. I'll keep beeches high on the priority list, as I too am very fond of them. Hopefully they're doing better up there than here. Stay tuned, maybe we'll have something for you in the near future. I hope so!

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  4. Hi there! Nice stuff, do keep me posted when you post again something like this! the collection tv

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  5. Old school foresters all: "Thou shall come this close to logic, but no further!"

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  6. I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article. I am hoping the same best work from you in the future as well. In fact your creative writing abilities has inspired me to start my own BlogEngine blog now. Really the blogging is spreading its wings rapidly. Your write up is a fine example of it.
    nya film

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  7. the state of MA has plans to log our state forests. Wendell State forest in next on the list. the plans include logging the oldest trees.... about 110 year olds. see the following link: savebrookerdforest.com and savemassforests.com

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  8. Nice Article! Old growth beeches are hard to find due to BBD. However, in PA, where I am, Old-growth beeches can be found in very small patches, but are often note-worthy. In South Eastern PA, in the Stateline Woods Preserve park, I have documented many very large (3 meters in girth) and very tall (over 40 meters-140 feet) beeches. BBD has not yet been noticed by me so far, and I hope it will stay BBD-free and free from other diseases for a long time. Here's a link of the large beeches documented in the Stateline Woods Preserve (which old-growth only covers about 5 acres) https://www.monumentaltrees.com/en/usa/pennsylvania/chestercounty/25912_statelinewoodspreserve/
    Although Old-Growth forest in SE PA are vitually non-existant, I have found a few patches located on public property and parks.

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