Old growth pines provide window to healthy forest

July 14, 2010

By hammersmith

[Source: Inside NAU] – Ecologists have been predicting the disappearance of most old growth ponderosa pines within our lifetime and the threat of crown fire is one of the reasons. In the West where the forests have been heavily logged and much younger trees now crowd the landscape, old growth pines almost can be considered an endangered species.

But on the Mogollon Rim south of Flagstaff, these giants still live in abundance.

In a place called Barney Spring, Northern Arizona University researchers are wading through a sea of waist-high ferns to study among the giants in a rare old growth forest.

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