The Forest Nobody Knows

The non-urban residents of the Northeast, who live in or close to the forests and woodlands, and the urban residents who live within several hours' drive of the mountains and spend recreation time there would be surprised by Dr. Stout's words. We think we know what a forest should look like. But according to her, very few people have ever seen examples of what our forests really could look like. We like to use terms such as "old-growth," "virgin," or"primeval" forest to describe our wilder forests, but most of us truly do not know what such forests were. Most of the forests we see now are not old-growth (that is, never cut). The few scattered remnants of old-growth forest remaining have all been touched by chestnut blight, Dutch elm disease, butternut canker, and the gypsy moth. The northeastern forests reported by the early European colonists were cleared for agriculture long ago and have grown back at least once and maybe again after timber harvest. This article was included in the Forest Science Review, Winter 2004

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