Old Growth Forests The Last of Their Kind

 

By Brenton Page

 

            Many people don’t understand how valuable old growth forests are, and by the time they do it will be too late. According to REO, “an Old Growth Forest stand are at least 180-220 years old with high canopy closure, with numerous large snags.” Many small and large mammals use these snags for cover.  Old Growth Forests offer many advantages such as natural reproduction with ability to fight disease and fire, as well as cover for many animals that are on the endangered species list. People have been harvesting old growth forests through logging because they offer a very good source of money because the trees are so big and rare, but that is the downside the trees are rare and we need to stop cutting them down because once we cut them down you can’t just bring back a Old Growth Forest. There are numerous types of animals such as the Northern Spotted Owl which is endangered, that only inhabits old growth forests and if we log them, you will put these owls into extinction. Something you might not think of is salmon. Certain salmon such as the Coho salmon which in habit numerous streams and river that run through the Old Growth Forests. This is low on peoples list on what gets affected because when they think of forests they don’t think of salmon. When companies want to log an old growth forest they have to make logging roads that run to and from the area they want to log, and by making these logging roads they destroy whatever is in their way such as streams and rivers. They don’t care if they destroy mother nature because there in it for the money and nothing else. According to Sequestration Controversy, “Old Growth Forests store very large amounts of carbon in their biomass and surrounding soil, as well as capture new carbon at the same time.” This is useful because many plants and flowers depend on carbon to live.

            We need to conserve our environmental future and by doing so we need to stop cutting down old growth forests because it harms numerous species. There are really no disadvantages to leaving old growth forests up. One of the largest Old Growth Forests left is located right here in the United States in Alaska. It’s called the Tongass National Forest, the reason this is still left is because it has not been logged, we need to do this more often to preserve our national Old Growth Forests. We can cherish our Old Growth Forests by not cutting them down, and to target younger forests for logging instead. Loggers don’t care about who suffers from their actions they do it only for the money, they need to realize that when they cut these forests down if effects not only people but animals and nature as well. Old growth forests have been here for many of years and if we destroy them future forest growth will decrease. We need to stop logging of the old growth forests so our future can benefit from them.