permaculture

["Roorbach, Ashley" <Ashley.Roorbach@orst.edu>]

Thanks for the tip.

I looked up Taman Negara National Park on the web, and according to the
national park's web page, that forest is 130 million years old!  

I agree, a discussion of terms would be helpful.  Species come and go in a
plant community - does the life span or 'age' of a forest apply only to a
period of time when there is a relatively consistent mixture of species (ie
woody overstory species, or should such a definition include understory
species as well?  How about wildlife species?)?  So when a different
collection of species become dominant, a new and different forest been
'born'.  Or, does the same 'forest' exist through time regardless of the
species composition as long as there is some kind of consistent overstory,
wooded cover?  Perhaps this is mostly an academic question... I tend to the
second definition because I think the first approach is unworkable.  

When I think of forest, I think of 'woods', consisting of large tracts of
relatively large, woody 'overstory' species which generally provide fair
amount of shade, growing in association with shrub and herb species that may
or may not be consistently distributed throghout the understory.  Anything
else I think of as a plantation, savanah, grassland or desert (to name a
few).  Perhaps though this is more a reflection of my New England biases
than anything else.

Happy New Millenium - for those following the Gregorian, Christian calendar.
Is this the new millennium for pagans too...?

-----Original Message-----
From: eric + michiko
To: permaculture
Sent: 12/22/99 8:28 PM
Subject: Re: oldest forest info

Ash Roorbach wrote:
> 
> I am looking for information on the age and location of the world's
oldest 
> known forest.  Does anyone have this information or know where to get
it 
> (ideally on the web)?
> 
> I am also trying to find the age of Indonesia's forests.  Does anyone 
> know?

I don't know if they are _the_ oldest, but I was told that the
rainforest
in central pennisular Malaysia (Taman Negara National Park, I believe)
is
millions of years old.  Hope it helps.

Eric Storm

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