Spared the Saw

The forested mountains of Great Smoky Mountains National Park are ancient, but much of the forest is young. By the time the park was established, as much as 80 percent of the forest had been cleared by loggers and farmers, so much of what is seen through the park is second-growth. From this vantage point, however, the ridges and valleys include ancient old-growth forest that was never cut. Some trees are huge, but many are not, because old-growth does not require big trees; where conditions are harsh, such as on ridge tops, a 500-year-old tree might be only six inches in diameter. The Great Smokies' old-growth forests include several record specimens whose size is not exceeded elsewhere, and because less than five percent of America's forests escaped the logger's saw or farmer's axe, the old-growth forest here is especially significant. Scientists study these forests carefully because the effects of a changing environment on the Smokies forest have implications for forests worldwide.

North Carolina · United States