OPINION

Protecting our old growth forests

Posted 9/16/20

To the Editor: When you walk through our state parks, it is easy to imagine that the forests in Rhode Island have always looked this way, but in reality, the forests were very different when the first European settlers arrived here. In the early 1600's,

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OPINION

Protecting our old growth forests

Posted

To the Editor:

When you walk through our state parks, it is easy to imagine that the forests in Rhode Island have always looked this way, but in reality, the forests were very different when the first European settlers arrived here.

In the early 1600’s, it was not uncommon to find trees that were hundreds of years old, growing over 150 feet tall and being five feet in diameter. Now, it is rare to find a tree in our forests that is over 80 years old. By the 1800’s, almost all of the trees in the old growth forests of Rhode Island had been cut down for farming. While many of our forests have grown back on abandoned farmland, these are second growth forests and look nothing like the original old growth forests. As well as having massive super-centenarian trees, the old growth forests had a completely different ecosystem than the forests of today.

These old growth forests had a much greater diversity of fauna and flora, and even the soil was different. However, most of us have never seen an old growth forest since they are almost completely gone on the east coast. One would be very lucky to find an intact ten-acre old growth forest today in the northeast. However, there is still time to save this rare and invaluable ecosystem.

On the west coast, more of these old growth forests survived; the Redwoods and Olympic National Park being among the most famous. However, these ancient forests are now currently under threat from wildfires and logging. Just days ago, a large section of the old growth forest at Big Basin State Park in California was devastated by the wildfires there. While we cannot control nature, we can stop logging of these rare forests. The largest old growth forest in the United States is the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. This forest is currently under threat from logging which is right now being fought in the courts.

While I understand logging is an essential industry, it does not make sense to log our last remaining old growth forests which constitutes less than 1 percent of our forests nationwide. To ban the cutting of old growth forests will not destroy the logging industry, especially since most of the forests in the U.S. are second growth and can be more easily replaced. Old growth forests cannot. Once they’re gone, they are not coming back for thousands of years.

Therefore, I propose that Congress put forward a bill to ban all logging and development of old growth forests. This Old Growth Forest Protection Act would preserve the last remaining old growth forests for people to enjoy generations to come. This Act would also protect virgin prairie land which like the forests are also disappearing, tallgrass prairie being especially rare. We need to protect these ancient American forests now before they are gone forever.

Nathan Cornell

Member of the Warwick Land Trust

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  • Gaegogi

    Nathan, no one is clear cutting these old growth forests. Part of the reason the wildfires on the west coast are so bad is that there is not cutting allowed at all due to environmental extremists. Responsible logging will manage these forests.

    Thursday, September 17, 2020 Report this