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79-526: The company was transformed into a wholly owned subsidiary of Maxxam, Inc for its two final decades. In January 2007 the company filed for bankruptcy protection. On July 29, 2008, the "Final Order" from US Bankruptcy attorney, Judge Richard Schmidt, led to the transfer of the assets of the bankrupt PALCO and all its subsidiaries to the Mendocino Redwood Company and the town of Scotia to Marathon Structured Finance. After 145 years as PALCO,

158-447: A Western Union telegraph station, church, post office, and school. In 1895, the company suffered a major setback as the entire town burned, suffering $ 400,000 in losses ($ 8,000,000 in today's terms). By that time, Simon J. Murphy, Sr. a Detroit business man and one of its first millionaires had consolidated his millions from Detroit and Southern California into PL. The Simon Murphy family, Stanwood Murphy and his direct descendants would be

237-418: A forest dynamics perspective, old-growth forest is in a stage that follows understory reinitiation stage. Those stages are: Of importance is that while the stand switches from one tree community to another, the stand will not necessarily go through old-growth stage between those stages. Some tree species have a relatively open canopy. That allows more shade-tolerant tree species to establish below even before

316-480: A "selective cut" system of logging. This meant that the company would limit cutting to a maximum of 70 percent of the mature trees in a stand, leaving the younger, most vigorous trees to hold the soil and seed a new generation of forest. He also instituted the concept of "sustainable yield," which directed planners to never cut more than the company's forests could replace by new growth in any year. These practices were hailed as revolutionary and he and his direct heirs ran

395-432: A biodiversity that is different from other forest stages. The characteristic topography of much old-growth forest consists of pits and mounds. Mounds are caused by decaying fallen trees, and pits ( tree throws ) by the roots pulled out of the ground when trees fall due to natural causes, including being pushed over by animals. Pits expose humus -poor, mineral-rich soil and often collect moisture and fallen leaves, forming

474-553: A bomb planted in the car of Earth First! activist Judi Bari exploded, sending her and fellow activist Darryl Cherney to the hospital. Judi and Darryl were on their way to a music and speaking event on the UC Santa Cruz campus, part of an organizing tour for Redwood Summer , which sought to inform the wider public about the tragedy unfolding in the Redwood Empire. The explosion was a milestone of forest activism in

553-536: A deal that inevitably led to the creation of the Headwaters Forest in 1999 in exchange for $ 480 million in taxpayer money. Between a desire to turn a higher profit and the need to start paying off the debt incurred from acquiring Pacific Lumber, Hurwitz's Maxxam replaced the sustainable growth policy of the previous owner-managers (primarily the Murphy family) with one of clearcutting . On May 24, 1990,

632-577: A different potential to store carbon. For example, this potential is particularly high in the Pacific Northwest where forests are relatively productive, trees live a long time, decomposition is relatively slow, and fires are infrequent. The differences between forests must, therefore, be taken into consideration when determining how they should be managed to store carbon. A 2019 study projected that old-growth forests in Southeast Asia ,

711-767: A different spatial location relative to the main canopy, hence each one receives a different amount of light. The mixed age of the forest is an important criterion in ensuring that the forest is a relatively stable ecosystem in the long term. A climax stand that is uniformly aged becomes senescent and degrades within a relatively short time to result in a new cycle of forest succession . Thus, uniformly aged stands are less stable ecosystems. Boreal forests are more uniformly aged, as they are normally subject to frequent stand-replacing wildfires. Forest canopy gaps are essential in creating and maintaining mixed-age stands. Also, some herbaceous plants only become established in canopy openings, but persist beneath an understory. Openings are

790-563: A healthy fungal ecosystem, and presence of indicator species. Old-growth forests are often biologically diverse , and home to many rare species , threatened species , and endangered species of plants and animals, such as the northern spotted owl , marbled murrelet and fisher , making them ecologically significant. Levels of biodiversity may be higher or lower in old-growth forests compared to that in second-growth forests, depending on specific circumstances, environmental variables, and geographic variables. Logging in old-growth forests

869-410: A moist, relatively mild climate, some old-growth trees have attained notable height and girth (DBH: diameter at breast height), accompanied by notable biodiversity in terms of the species supported. Therefore, for most people, the physical size of the trees is the most recognized hallmark of old-growth forests, even though the ecologically productive areas that support such large trees often comprise only

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948-516: A more conservative harvesting model that eliminates clearcutting and most old-growth redwood cutting. Mendocino Redwood Company was given a well managed certification of timber management practices. This certification was issued by the Forest Stewardship Council . The certification study was conducted by Scientific Certification Systems. Old growth An old-growth forest (also referred to as primary forest )

1027-415: A relatively low profit annually, which unwittingly were about to make the company vulnerable to "new" acquisition practices from Wall Street. The last Murphy to manage the company under these circumstances, Warren Murphy, reflected on what it was like to run such a stable enterprise with sound environmental practices: "We were the good guys. It was fun, it was easy—it was a great life." On September 30, 1985,

1106-704: A result of industrial logging operations. In 2006, about 61,000 hectares of tall-eucalypt RFA old-growth forests remained unprotected. Recent logging attempts in the Upper Florentine Valley have sparked a series of protests and media attention over the arrests that have taken place in this area. Additionally, Gunns Limited , the primary forestry contractor in Tasmania, has been under recent criticism by political and environmental groups over its practice of woodchipping timber harvested from old-growth forests. Increased understanding of forest dynamics in

1185-550: A result of tree death due to small impact disturbances such as wind, low-intensity fires, and tree diseases. Old-growth forests are unique, usually having multiple horizontal layers of vegetation representing a variety of tree species , age classes, and sizes, as well as "pit and mound" soil shape with well-established fungal nets . As old-growth forest is structurally diverse, it provides higher-diversity habitat than forests in other stages. Thus, sometimes higher biological diversity can be sustained in old-growth forests, or at least

1264-432: A severe disturbance, such as wildfire, insect infestation, or harvesting, is often called second-growth or 'regeneration' until enough time passes for the effects of the disturbance to be no longer evident. Depending on the forest, this may take from a century to several millennia. Hardwood forests of the eastern United States can develop old-growth characteristics in 150–500 years. In British Columbia , Canada, old growth

1343-486: A source of raw materials. These services include making breathable air, making pure water, carbon storage, regeneration of nutrients, maintenance of soils, pest control by insectivorous bats and insects, micro- and macro-climate control, and the storage of a wide variety of genes. The effects of old-growth forests in relation to global warming have been addressed in various studies and journals. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in its 2007 report : "In

1422-412: A substrate for seedling trees. Intact soils harbor many life forms that rely on them. Intact soils generally have very well-defined horizons, or soil profiles . Different organisms may need certain well-defined soil horizons to live, while many trees need well-structured soils free of disturbance to thrive. Some herbaceous plants in northern hardwood forests must have thick duff layers (which are part of

1501-400: A thick organic layer that is able to nurture certain types of organisms. Mounds provide a place free of leaf inundation and saturation, where other types of organisms thrive. Standing snags provide food sources and habitat for many types of organisms. In particular, many species of dead-wood predators, such as woodpeckers , must have standing snags available for feeding. In North America,

1580-417: A useful number to measure. So, some forests may be excluded from being categorized as old-growth even if they have old-growth attributes just because they are too young. Also, older forests can lack some old-growth attributes and be categorized as old-growth just because they are so old. The idea of using age is also problematic, because human activities can influence the forest in varied ways. For example, after

1659-584: A very small portion of the total area that has been mapped as old-growth forest. (In high-altitude, harsh climates, trees grow very slowly and thus remain at a small size. Such trees also qualify as old growth in terms of how they are mapped, but are rarely recognized by the general public as such.) The debate over old-growth definitions has been inextricably linked with a complex range of social perceptions about wilderness preservation, biodiversity, aesthetics, and spirituality, as well as economic or industrial values. In logging terms, old-growth stands are past

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1738-699: Is a California based forest products company, which operates one mill in Ukiah , with holdings of over 228,800 acres (926 km ), primarily in Mendocino County . This relatively new timber company owns and manages ten percent of the county's private land. Founded in 1998, the Fisher Family , founders of Gap Clothing , are the majority stake owners. Mendocino Redwood Company utilizes herbicide applications to reduce tanoak density and restore conifer forests. The application and quantity of use

1817-511: Is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance . Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines primary forests as naturally regenerated forests of native tree species where there are no clearly visible indications of human activity and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed. One-third (34 percent) of

1896-414: Is a contentious issue in many parts of the world. Excessive logging reduces biodiversity, affecting not only the old-growth forest itself, but also indigenous species that rely upon old-growth forest habitat. Some forests in the old-growth stage have a mix of tree ages, due to a distinct regeneration pattern for this stage. New trees regenerate at different times from each other, because each of them has

1975-669: Is affected. Climate change showed an impact on the mortality of some dominant tree species, as observed in the Korean pine . Climate change also showed an effect on the composition of species when forests were surveyed over a 10- and 20-year period, which may disrupt the overall productivity of the forest. According to the World Resources Institute , as of January 2009, only 21% of the original old-growth forests that once existed on Earth are remaining. An estimated one-half of Western Europe's forests were cleared before

2054-615: Is defined as 120 to 140 years of age in the interior of the province where fire is a frequent and natural occurrence. In British Columbia's coastal rainforests , old growth is defined as trees more than 250 years, with some trees reaching more than 1,000 years of age. In Australia, eucalypt trees rarely exceed 350 years of age due to frequent fire disturbance. Forest types have very different development patterns, natural disturbances and appearances. A Douglas-fir stand may grow for centuries without disturbance while an old-growth ponderosa pine forest requires frequent surface fires to reduce

2133-433: Is more accurate in forests where the species that constitute old-growth have long lifespans and succession is slow. Common cultural definitions and common denominators regarding what comprises old-growth forest, and the variables that define, constitute and embody old-growth forests include: Additionally, in mountainous, temperate landscapes (such as Western North America), and specifically in areas of high-quality soil and

2212-919: Is not the most commercially viable timber—in British Columbia, Canada, harvesting in the coastal region is moving to younger second-growth stands. A 2001 scientific symposium in Canada found that defining old growth in a scientifically meaningful, yet policy-relevant, manner presents some basic difficulties, especially if a simple, unambiguous, and rigorous scientific definition is sought. Symposium participants identified some attributes of late-successional, temperate-zone, old-growth forest types that could be considered in developing an index of "old-growthness" and for defining old-growth forests: Structural features: Compositional features: Process features: Old-growth forests provide ecosystem services that may be far more important to society than their use as

2291-840: Is regulated by the Mendocino Agricultural Commission. California is the second largest forestland state in the United States, second to Alaska. Mendocino County has one of the largest percentages of the state's overall forest land. Following a July 29, 2008 "Final Order" from the US Bankruptcy Judge Richard Schmidt, the way cleared for MRC to take control of the once storied, then vilified, and, finally, bankrupt Pacific Lumber Company in Humboldt County, California from Maxxam Inc. of Texas. The final dispensation of

2370-557: Is seen as extremely economically unproductive, as timber can only be collected from falling trees, and also potentially damaging to nearby managed groves by creating environments conducive to root rot. It may be more productive to cut the old growth down and replace the forest with a younger one. The island of Tasmania , just off the southeast coast of Australia, has the largest amount of temperate old-growth rainforest reserves in Australia with around 1,239,000 hectares in total. While

2449-675: The 1906 San Francisco earthquake , World War I , and numerous floods on the Eel River, the company came into the modern age. By 1920 the company had 1,500 employees and 65,000 acres (260 km) of timberland. Beginning in the same decade, company management began participating in the preservation movement, primarily as a result of pressure from the Save the Redwoods League in San Francisco. Portions of prior PL holdings including

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2528-486: The Middle Ages , and 90% of the old-growth forests that existed in the contiguous United States in the 1600s have been cleared. The large trees in old-growth forests are economically valuable, and have been subject to aggressive logging throughout the world. This has led to many conflicts between logging companies and environmental groups . From certain forestry perspectives, fully maintaining an old-growth forest

2607-717: The Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) attempted to prevent the clearfelling of defined "old-growth forests". This led to struggles over what constitutes "old growth". For example, in Western Australia, the timber industry tried to limit the area of old growth in the karri forests of the Southern Forests Region; this led to the creation of the Western Australian Forests Alliance , the splitting of

2686-597: The ecosystem services they provide. This can be a point of contention when some in the logging industry desire to harvest valuable timber from the forests, destroying the forests in the process, to generate short-term profits, while environmentalists seek to preserve the forests in their pristine state for benefits such as water purification , flood control , weather stability, maintenance of biodiversity, and nutrient cycling . Moreover, old-growth forests are more efficient at sequestering carbon than newly planted forests and fast-growing timber plantations , thus preserving

2765-535: The spotted owl is well known for needing standing snags for nesting habitat. Fallen timber, or coarse woody debris , contributes carbon -rich organic matter directly to the soil , providing a substrate for mosses , fungi, and seedlings , and creating microhabitats by creating relief on the forest floor. In some ecosystems such as the temperate rain forest of the North American Pacific coast , fallen timber may become nurse logs , providing

2844-468: The Eel River, the region's major waterway, has been considerably damaged as a result of more than 150 years of logging activity, not all of which is the result of PALCO operations. In 1999 PALCO agreed to American activist Julia Butterfly Hill 's requests to create a 3-acre (12,000 m) buffer zone around a 600-year old-growth redwood named Luna in exchange for leaving the tree, as she had been living in it for just over two years. Though someone vandalized

2923-647: The GAP Stores who are already investors in timber lands in Mendocino county, just south of Humboldt county have submitted a proposal to take over PALCO to the Bankruptcy court in Corpus Christi, TX. Environmentalists hailed the move as being a vast improvement on the increased logging approach by Charles Hurwitz and MAXXAM. Mendocino Redwood Company The Mendocino Redwood Company (or MRC ),

3002-652: The Liberal Government of Western Australia and the election of the Gallop Labor Government. Old-growth forests in this region have now been placed inside national parks . A small proportion of old-growth forests also exist in South-West Australia and are protected by federal laws from logging, which has not occurred there for more than 20 years. In British Columbia , Canada , old-growth forests must be maintained in each of

3081-740: The Pacific Lumber Company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PL. By the 1980s, this huge lumber operation had absolutely no debt, holding a partially diversified portfolio that included a high-rise building in San Francisco and lucrative welding operation in the San Francisco Bay Area, all derived from the company's 100-year-plan based on sustained yield directed cutting and profits carefully spent to protect cash flow. These long-term plans consequently and purposely led to

3160-483: The Rockefeller Forest, the world's largest remaining contiguous old growth Redwood Forest to survive, now comprises the core of Humboldt Redwoods State Park . Further developments included recycling of sawdust into the world's first Presto logs. In 1931, Stanwood Murphy became president of the company. His unique foresight led to a drastic change in practices from the industry standard of clear cutting to

3239-661: The Scotia mill until 1976 from a log deck in Carlotta, California . Company switchers were stationed at Scotia until Northwestern Pacific Railroad discontinued service. Under pressure from environmental activists, the company considered selling 6,000 acres (24 km²) of mostly old growth redwoods for $ 300 million to protect the marbled murrelet , spotted owl , and other old growth dwellers. As required by regulatory authorities, buffer zones have been further developed around rivers to prevent erosion and maintain animal habitats, but

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3318-463: The age of 47. On September 17, 1998, David Chain , an Earth First! activist was struck by a falling tree while trying to stop logging in Pacific Lumber property. He was killed instantly and died of massive head trauma. In response to his death, a Pacific Lumber Co. spokesperson said their logging crew did not see anybody in the area and were unaware of Chain's presence. Earth First! said that

3397-652: The appellate court in Louisiana refused to hear the case. Timber note holders stated that this will mean the Mendocino Redwood Company/ Marathon plan will be able to go forward, and many agree that any future court will be unlikely to undo it. Pacific Lumber Company incorporated the Humboldt Bay and Eel River Railroad on 17 November 1882 to transport lumber from the Scotia sawmill to Humboldt Bay for loading aboard ships. The railway

3476-446: The atmosphere. Proponents of harvesting the forest argue the carbon stored in wood is available for use as biomass energy (displacing fossil fuel use), although using biomass as a fuel produces air pollution in the form of carbon monoxide , nitrogen oxides , volatile organic compounds , particulates, and other pollutants, in some cases at levels above those from traditional fuel sources such as coal or natural gas. Each forest has

3555-432: The bankruptcy, which had been ongoing since January 2007, began the transfer of PALCO's buildings, mill, and 210,000 acres (850 km ) of Humboldt forest to MRC. The company town of Scotia and other properties were transferred to Marathon Structured Finance. The consolidation of Pacific Lumber Company (PALCO) and subsidiaries is under the new name of Humboldt Redwood Company , which began operations ostensibly with

3634-489: The center of multiple controversies since a hostile takeover by Maxxam, Inc. (of Texas), that was completed in 1986. The company maintains that it is still a sustainable operation, but its policies and practices bear little resemblance to those before 1986. 1999 saw the sale of thousands of acres of land to become the Headwaters Forest Reserve . In that agreement, strict rules were put into place requiring

3713-528: The company in this manner for the next 55 years. By the 1950s, PALCO efforts to make Scotia a comfortable place to live and raise a family provided the following in the company town: affordable employee housing, stores, a school, a hospital, a skating rink, and a theatre. Under the Murphy family, the company implemented an employee pension plan, and provided free life insurance. By 1961, academic scholarships were also provided to students who were children of company employees. On December 17, 1975, common stock for

3792-543: The company to manage its holdings under more-restrictive practices. This in part led PALCO to file for bankruptcy in January 2007. By late in 2008 The Pacific Lumber Company ceased to exist. Pacific Lumber (or PL, as locals have known it for generations) began during the heat of the US Civil War in 1863 when A. W. McPherson and Henry Wetherbee purchased 6,000 acres (24 km) of timberland on California's Eel River at

3871-570: The controllers of the company for nearly a century The way they took care of business was shown handily after the big fire as they chose to rebuild everything, despite the fact that insurance covered only 25% of losses. Life during early 20th century lumbering is documented by the Neill family’s Photo Album, which features 292 photographs of the Neill family, townspeople, and daily life in the company town of Scotia . Images reflect everyday life and hardships, local residents and homes, vacations, trips into

3950-402: The day after the completed takeover, Warren Murphy resigned, turning over the company to John A. Campbell , a man who had been one of his executive vice presidents. However, despite indisputable changes in the tenor and management of the company, its last major holding of contiguous old growth forest was ultimately preserved as environmental groups and various auspices of government worked to seek

4029-421: The economic optimum for harvesting—usually between 80 and 150 years, depending on the species. Old-growth forests were often given harvesting priority because they had the most commercially valuable timber, they were considered to be at greater risk of deterioration through root rot or insect infestation, and they occupied land that could be used for more productive second-growth stands. In some regions, old growth

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4108-436: The forest will switch back to understory reinitiation stage. Using the stand dynamics definition, old-growth can be easily evaluated using structural attributes. However, in some forest ecosystems, this can lead to decisions regarding the preservation of unique stands or attributes that will disappear over the next few decades because of natural succession processes. Consequently, using stand dynamics to define old-growth forests

4187-472: The forests is vital to climate change mitigation . Old-growth forests tend to have large trees and standing dead trees, multilayered canopies with gaps that result from the deaths of individual trees, and coarse woody debris on the forest floor. The trees of old-growth forests develop distinctive attributes not seen in younger trees, such as more complex structures and deeply fissured bark that can harbor rare lichens and mosses. A forest regenerated after

4266-576: The land underlying the right of way along with the timber rights and the ability to use the line for their logging operations. The railway became part of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad on 8 January 1907. Pacific Lumber Company built flatcars from wood and maintained a fleet of locomotives for moving logs from the woods into the mill and for switching cars for loading or unloading at the sawmill. Diesels replaced steam locomotives in 1955. Log trains of wooden flat cars ran to

4345-427: The landscape patterns and habitat conditions normally maintained in nature . This coarse filter approach to biodiversity conservation recognizes ecological processes and provides for a dynamic distribution of old growth across the landscape. And all seral stages—young, medium, and old—support forest biodiversity. Plants and animals rely on different forest ecosystem stages to meet their habitat needs. In Australia ,

4424-525: The late 20th century led the scientific community to identify a need to inventory, understand, manage, and conserve representative examples of old-growth forests with their associated characteristics and values. Literature around old growth and its management is inconclusive about the best way to characterize the true essence of an old-growth stand. A better understanding of natural systems has resulted in new ideas about forest management, such as managed natural disturbances, which should be designed to achieve

4503-620: The local Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) was originally designed to protect much of this natural wealth, many of the RFA old-growth forests protected in Tasmania consist of trees of little use to the timber industry. RFA old-growth and high conservation value forests that contain species highly desirable to the forestry industry have been poorly preserved. Only 22% of Tasmania's original tall-eucalypt forests managed by Forestry Tasmania have been reserved. Ten thousand hectares of tall-eucalypt RFA old-growth forest have been lost since 1996, predominantly as

4582-442: The loggers had been deliberately felling huge trees, in a perpendicular manner rather than downhill, in the protesters' direction. One of the protesters also noted that the tree fellers were fully aware that they were there, as the activists had been "yelling at them, walking towards them, telling them 'Don't fell this tree'" . On a videotape supplied by Earth First!, Arlington Earl Ammons, the 52-year-old logger responsible for felling

4661-408: The logging of 30% of the trees, less time is needed for old-growth to come back than after removal of 80% of the trees. Although depending on the species logged, the forest that comes back after a 30% harvest may consist of proportionately fewer hardwood trees than a forest logged at 80% in which the light competition by less important tree species does not inhibit the regrowth of vital hardwoods. From

4740-413: The long term, a sustainable forest management strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing forest carbon stocks, while producing an annual sustained yield of timber, fibre, or energy from the forest, will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit." Old-growth forests are often perceived to be in equilibrium or in a state of decay. However, evidence from analysis of carbon stored above ground and in

4819-481: The majority of which are in Indonesia and Malaysia , are able to sequester carbon or be a net emitter of greenhouse gases based on deforestation scenarios over the subsequent decades. Old-growth forests have the potential to impact climate change, but climate change is also impacting old-growth forests. As the effects of global warming grow more substantial, the ability of old-growth forests to sequester carbon

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4898-555: The new company is known as the Humboldt Redwood Company . Some of the affected parties, including Bank of New York Trust Company , filed an appeal and on September 29, 2009 the Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit modified this judgment. However, the asset transfer and resulting companies were little changed by the modification and no other adjustments of any significance have occurred since. The Pacific Lumber Company

4977-524: The province's ecological units to meet biodiversity needs. In the United States , from 2001, around a quarter of the federal forests are protected from logging. In December 2023, Biden's administration introduced a rule, according to which, logging is strongly limited in old growth forests, but permitted in "mature forests", representing a compromise between the logging industry and environmental activists. In 2006, Greenpeace identified that

5056-484: The rate of $ 1.25 per acre. Over the ensuing 20 years they added more partners and began significant logging by 1882, at the present main site and town, which was originally known as Forestville. By 1888, the company became the largest in Humboldt County, with 300 employees and lumber shipments exceeding 20,000,000 board feet (47,000 m) annually. By this time the town name was changed to Scotia and it boasted

5135-554: The redwoods and elsewhere. The bomber was never identified. Oakland police and the FBI initially accused Bari and Cherney with transporting an explosive device under the driver's seat of her own car; but Alameda County prosecutors dropped the case for lack of evidence a few months later. A lawsuit filed by Judi against the FBI for violation of Constitutional rights was ultimately successful in 2002, vindicating Darryl and Judi, but coming five years after Judi's untimely death from breast cancer at

5214-607: The shade-tolerant species and regenerate the canopy species. In the boreal forest of Canada , catastrophic disturbances like wildfires minimize opportunities for major accumulations of dead and downed woody material and other structural legacies associated with old growth conditions. Typical characteristics of old-growth forest include the presence of older trees, minimal signs of human disturbance, mixed-age stands, presence of canopy openings due to tree falls, pit-and-mound topography , down wood in various stages of decay, standing snags (dead trees), multilayered canopies, intact soils ,

5293-462: The soil has shown old-growth forests are more productive at storing carbon than younger forests. Forest harvesting has little or no effect on the amount of carbon stored in the soil, but other research suggests older forests that have trees of many ages, multiple layers, and little disturbance have the highest capacities for carbon storage. As trees grow, they remove carbon from the atmosphere, and protecting these pools of carbon prevents emissions into

5372-516: The soil profile). Fungal ecosystems are essential for efficient in-situ recycling of nutrients back into the entire ecosystem. Stand age can also be used to categorize a forest as old-growth. For any given geographical area, the average time since disturbance until a forest reaches the old growth stage can be determined. This method is useful, because it allows quick and objective determination of forest stage. However, this definition does not provide an explanation of forest function. It just gives

5451-416: The surrounding forest, and Pacific Lumber Company’s mill and work operations, between the years of 1908 and 1913. The Neil Photo Album is available for viewing at Humboldt State University’s Special Collections. By 1905, Simon Murphy, Sr., originally of Detroit, Michigan and later of Whittier, California , completed the process of gaining control of the company. Through the rebuilding of San Francisco after

5530-692: The tree during the process, it survives to the present. In 2003, the Company was sued civilly, by the District Attorney of Humboldt County, for fraud and violations of the California Business and Professions Code. The suit was predicated on the allegation that PALCO had affirmatively represented that its timber operations would have a similar environmental impact across all of its land holdings, when in fact there were wide variances and effects on differing watershed environments. The suit

5609-533: The tree that caused Chain's death can be heard shouting expletives and threatening the protesters. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2007. A Texas bankruptcy court considered reorganization options early in 2008. On June 6, 2008 the judge preliminarily decided to confirm the Mendocino Redwood Company option for reorganization and signed the order on July 8, 2008. The company's bond holders attempted to appeal, but on July 24,

5688-549: The understory reinitiation stage. The shade-tolerant trees eventually outcompete the main canopy trees in stem-exclusion stage. Therefore, the dominant tree species will change, but the forest will still be in stem-exclusion stage until the shade-tolerant species reach old-growth stage. Tree species succession may change tree species' composition once the old-growth stage has been achieved. For example, an old boreal forest may contain some large aspen trees, which may die and be replaced by smaller balsam fir or black spruce. Consequently,

5767-476: The venerable Pacific Lumber Company, having maneuvered through more than a century of business peaks and valleys, was taken over as a result of stock purchases culminating on September 27, 1985. The Murphy family (the largest minority stock holders at the time) and countless previous stockholders, mostly company employees, were relieved of their stock as a result of a hostile takeover by Charles Hurwitz and his Maxxam, Inc. corporation of Texas. On February 26, 1986,

5846-471: The world has 1.11  billion   ha (2.7 billion acres) of primary forest remaining. Combined, three countries (Brazil, Canada, and Russia) host more than half (61 percent) of the world's primary forest. The area of primary forest has decreased by 81 million ha (200 million acres) since 1990, but the rate of loss more than halved in 2010–2020 compared with the previous decade. Old-growth forests are valuable for economic reasons and for

5925-500: The world's forests are primary forests. Old-growth features include diverse tree-related structures that provide diverse wildlife habitats that increases the biodiversity of the forested ecosystem . Virgin or first-growth forests are old-growth forests that have never been logged. The concept of diverse tree structure includes multi-layered canopies and canopy gaps, greatly varying tree heights and diameters, and diverse tree species and classes and sizes of woody debris. As of 2020 ,

6004-413: The world's remaining intact forest landscapes are distributed among the continents as follows: [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 ( license statement/permission ). Text taken from Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 Key findings​ , FAO, FAO. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from

6083-610: Was completed across the Scotia Bluffs to Alton, California on 20 August 1885 where connection was made with the Eel River and Eureka Railroad for the remainder of the distance to Humboldt Bay. Rails were extended southward up the Eel River from Scotia to bring logs into the sawmill. Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway merged the Pacific Lumber Company railway into their subsidiary San Francisco and Northwestern Railway on 15 May 1903, although Pacific Lumber Company retained

6162-445: Was started in 1863. Though it employed over 350 people in its final days in 2008, there were over 1,600 employees at the turn of the millennium. The company itself was a tourist attraction that once welcomed visitors for a tour of the (now permanently closed) largest Redwood Mill ever constructed, which included an unusual hydraulic debarker . The quaint town adjacent to the mill is still open to public visits. Pacific Lumber has been at

6241-529: Was ultimately dismissed by a California Superior Court Judge, but was later appealed to the California Court of Appeal. In January 2008, the California court of Appeal for the 1st district upheld the trial court's dismissal of the litigation, and the suit is for all practical purposes over. During the pendency of this litigation MAXXAM filed for Bankruptcy. Reports indicate that the family that owns

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