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  • From: Alliums <garlicgrower AT earthlink.net>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Why old growth is important
  • Date: Sun, 09 Feb 2003 21:39:33 -0500

Marc wrote:
I always wondered about why old growth is important.

The short version is that plants, especially woody plants have a longer lifecycle and when you have an old growth forest, you have all sorts of species you don't get in a younger forest because the organisms haven't had enough time to grow up, mature and reproduce. One immediately thinks of the trees (and conifers can live a long, long, loooooooooong time), but it's also the soil organisms are totally different. The mcychorrizal (sp) fungi are amazing in an old growth forest -- which is why folks really freak out when the soil is disturbed -- it's like severing a vein when you disturb them in the soil and they don't grow back very quickly (because, of course, if they grew faster, they'd be just as dramatic in a younger forest).

If you ever get the chance, visit the Tongass National Forest -- I'd read about succession for years (was an ecology lab assistant in college), but I didn't really *get* it until I actually set foot in that forest. It just *feels* different that an Appalachian forest, which of course, is the oldest you get here in Pennsylvania.



Dorene Pasekoff, Coordinator
St. John's United Church of Christ Organic Community Garden

A mission of
St. John's United Church of Christ, 315 Gay Street, Phoenixville, PA 19460






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