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"When there is need of restoration, there is adversity. And there is adversity aplenty in our world. The environmental movement in general and the wilderness and forest preservation movement in particular are in part attempts to heal a broken culture."

Michael Perlman, from "Old-Growth Spirituality," Eastern Old-Growth Forests:  Prospects for Rediscovery and Recovery. Edited by Mary Byrd Davis, p. 97. Island Press, 1996.

Because we cannot quantify nature's intrinsic value, we face challenges trying to preserve uncut old-growth forests. Instead, such stands are assessed valued based on the available board-footage of this extractivecommodity: timber.

Yet trees and forest send a subtle message of peace and tranquility. Those lucky enough to walk the trails of an undisturbed world can escape the daily stresses, rush-hour traffic and concrete jungles. Old-growth forests:

  • Offer recreational pleasure and spiritual renewal;
  • Offer habitat for rare and endangered plants and animals;
  • Are living memorials to a bygone day of untamed wilderness;
  • Contain the oldest, tallest and largest living things.
  • Allow dendochronologists and other scientists to study tree rings and the recorded natural history contained within. Past precipitation and drought , fire history, insect infestations and other processes that drive growth can be determined;
  • Regenerate nutrients and maintain soil;
  • Produce breathable air while removing pollution; and
  • Cool the earth's surface.
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The American Chestnut
(Castanea dentata)


In the first 40 years of the 20th Century, blight destroyed 3.5 billion American Chestnuts. What had been the most important tree in our Eastern forest was reduced to insignificance. No comparable devastation of a species exists in recorded history.

"It is not beyond the grasp of science to restore the American chestnut to economic importance. It could be accomplished within the next 50 years."
Prof Gary Griffin, VA Tech