This past weekend I took my family to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. There we learned that the beautiful forests of the White Mountains have been a National Forest since around 1918 and have been used not only for hiking, camping, and skiing, but for logging and other commercial purposes. Most of the White Mountains have been logged in the past 100 years, so the forest itself is not very old at all.

White Mountains

I found this shocking, so I did a little research on the rest of the forests in the US, dreading the possibility of finding an answer that showed the ignorance of our forefathers.

Luckily, my research turned up good news. There are plenty of "Old Growth" forests in the US. One of the oldest forest in the US is the Ouachita National Forest and is located in western Arkansas and portions of eastern Oklahoma which spans a staggering 1,784,457 acres. The Ouachita Mountains were first explored by Spainards in 1541 and were saved from a 1.6 million acre reduction in the 1930s but a last-minute veto by President Calvin Coolidge saved the forest. 

Ouachita National Forest

Some terms used when speaking about old forests are: old growth forest, primary forest, ancient forest, virgin forest, primeval forest, frontier forest or Ancient Woodland. The reason these old forests are important is because they contain unique biological features with large live trees, large dead trees, a large variety of vegetation, insects and animals species. They are often home to rare species, threatened species and endangered species of plants and animals, making them ecologically significant.

Sierra National Forest, CA

Placed under Federal protection in 1893.

If you would like to visit an old growth forest, check out the below list or check out GORP.com's old growth destination guide.

- Joyce Kilmer Forest, North Carolina
- Eglin Air Force Base, Florida
- Congaree Swamp, South Carolina
- Five Ponds Wilderness, New York
- Isle Royale, Michigan
- Great Basin, Nevada
- Redwood Park, California
- Opal Creek, Oregon
- Gila Forest, New Mexico
- Tongass Forest, Alaska

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