Ancient Forests

Ancient forests include trees of all ages, many layers of canopy , large standing dead trees (snags), large downed logs, fallen logs in streams, and trees that are over 200 years old.

Take a moment at the bench to sit and look around you. Sense the atmosphere of the ancient (or old growth) forest that surrounds you. On a larger redwood tree about 100 ft (31 meters) directly ahead, follow the trunk up about 100 feet on the left side to find a bushy albino (or ghost) redwood growth. Albinos lack chlorophyll, and therefore appear white in color, obtaining their needed nutrients as a parasite on the host tree.

The greatest accumulation of plant mass ever recorded on earth was a redwood stand in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. This temperate rainforest has seven times the biomass of that found in a tropical rainforest.

Everything you see around you has an interconnecting role with the rest of the forest—from the huge trees to the smallest decaying plant material.