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prescribed to match site conditions, plant and animal species 

 involved, successional relationships, and other local factors to 

 help ensure that a broad spectrum of wildlife and other forest 

 management objectives are met. 



Old-growth Forest Management 



The Society views Tongass National Forest management primarily as 

 an old-growth forest/wildlife management concern. A definition of 

 old growth should include important regional characteristics of 

 structure and function. Generally, old-growth forests include 

 those stages of forest development that occur after the growth 

 rate of the dominant tree species begins to decline. They are 

 mosaics of variably sized trees ranging in age from seedlings to 

 dominant, 200+-year old trees. They have patchy, multi-layered 

 canopies and are structurally diverse. Moreover, old-growth 

 stands are dynamic, steady-state ecosystems in which total plant 

 biomass is high and net biomass accumulation is low. This is 

 often the maximum stand age at which harvest would occur in 

 forests managed primarily for production of timber. 



Old-growth forests provide critical and highly productive habitat 

 for several species of wildlife and fish. In Southeast Alaska, 

 such species as Sitka black-tailed deer, brown/grizzly bears, 

 bald eagles, and spawning salmon depend on these forests. Old- 

 growth forests also function as important pathways for fixing 

 nitrogen, retaining and recycling nutrients, and producing high 

 quality water in associated streams and rivers. 



Old-growth forests are a rare and diminishing resource in North 

 America. In the United States, they have been reduced to less 

 than 5% of their original extent, with remaining stands rapidly 

 disappearing primarily as the result of timber harvest practices. 

 As there are presently no known silvicultural practices capable 

 of replacing these essentially nonrenewable forests, plans for 

 maintaining them must be developed and implemented if the values 

 of old-growth forests are to be retained and perpetuated through 

 time. 



Old-growth Forests and Wildlife on the Tongass National Forest 



The old-growth rain forests of coastal Alaska represent a scarce 

 and unique ecosystem of international significance. Of the 

 remaining original old-growth forests in the United States, most 

 occur in remote areas of the Pacific Northwest and in Southeast 

 Alaska. In Southeast Alaska, old growth is highly variable and 

 can include stands of dominant trees that exceed 300 years of age 

 and 61 meters in height. The vast majority of old growth, 

 however, is composed of smaller trees growing on brushy, poor 

 quality sites. This region contains a large proportion of the 

 remaining old-growth forests in the country. 



