The Forest Service has recognized the significance of old growth as a distinct forest resource, elevating its status in forest management planning.
Public perception is of ancient and massive trees in cool, damp forests.
The Southern Research Station in Asheville, North Carolina, is publishing 17 definitions of old-growth species, written by scientists from the USDA Forest Service and The Nature Conservancy. Three are available now for distribution. The Northeastern Station in Radnor, Pennsylvania, published a tabular document to quantify attributes of other eastern old-growth species. Gregory J. Nowacki played a key role in the Eastern Old Growth Project while working for The Nature Conservancy in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. This endeavor is the first concerted effort to define old-growth conditions using a uniform format for a variety of Eastern U.S. forest types.