General Benefits of Old-Growth

Old-growth forests can provide many services and support many desirable uses.  Giles (2000) listed some important and obvious benefits:

• Aesthetic appreciation
• Education
• Recreation
• Preservation of genetic material for unknown future services
  • Potential for discovering medicinal plants
  • Potential for bioengineering
  • Source of potential inoculum for recovering forests
• Research of natural processes
• Watershed protection and runoff control
  • Protection from erosion
  • Reduces peak flows of floods
  • Filters and slows water
• Retention of plant and animal diversity
• Carbon storage and therefore a potential buffer of global warming
• Provides habitat for a wide variety of animal and invertebrate species
  • Supports a rich insect faunal community.
  • Provides habitat for rare and endangered animal species.
  • Provides a multi-layered, three dimensional habitat with complex structure.
  • Provides vertical structure to increase bird diversity.
  • Provides micro-"travel lanes," both fallen and standing trees for many animals.
  • Provides critical habitat for several species of reptiles and amphibians.
  • Provides critical habitat for several species of tree bats.
  • Produces abundant and varied mast for animal consumption.
  • Provides sources of mycorrhizal fungi as wildlife food and for invaluable tree-growth enhancement
  • Produces relatively large amounts of dead wood as habitat for arthropods that are a food base for birds and some mammals.
  • Provides perching and cavity sites, particularly for the larger birds and mammals (e.g., pileated woodpecker, bears, raccoons).
• Produces climatic modification due to changes in albedo and wind effects.

Many of these listed benefits are applicable to all forests, but old-growth may produce them in greater abundance.