How old or tall do trees have to be, to be considered old growth? That's a question that can produce different answers from different scientists.
But a collection of scientists took a stab at it, putting out the first-ever map-based assessment of mature and old-growth (MOG) forests in the continental United States. No big surprise, most of what can be considered old-growth timber is on National Forest land in the west.
But how did the research team get to those numbers, and what can be done with them? We put that question and others to Rogue Valley scientist Dominick DellaSala of Wild Heritage and Brendan Rogers of the Woodwell Climate Research Institute.