What is an early seral forest and why is it important?

Our mission is public education as it relates to all things forestry - so your contributions matter. Your support means we can continue to bring you the quality of content you have come to expect from Evergreen.
If you appreciate our work, let us know
by subscribing or donating or leave us a tip!
Much gratitude to those of you who already support our work.

Some environmentalist organizations claim the only forests that matter are old growth forests. This isn’t true. If we didn’t have young forests – aka early-seral forests composed of seedlings and saplings – there would be no old growth forest.

We need forests of all ages, from seedlings to giants sometimes more than 800 years old. World-wide there are about 2.7 billion acres of old growth. Globally, forests of all ages span 10 billion acres, so we have about 7.3 billion acres of younger forests.

Old growth definitions vary widely depending on tree species, geographic location, local growing conditions and – politics. The Biden Administration ordered an inventory of old growth forests in the U.S. and attempted to lump younger forests into older classifications. The goal was to place younger forests in no-harvest reserves.

Two Oregon State University forest scientists have offered a refreshing and unvarnished answer to the question:

What is an early-seral forest and why is it important?

Steve Fitzgerald is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Forest Engineering, Resources and Management. His research interests are silviculture, forest health, biological diversity,  thinning methods, stand density, fire, fire management, forest ecology and post-fire regeneration.

His co-author is Holly Ober, PhD, Association Dean, Forest Outreach and Program Leader for Natural Resource Extension. Her applied research interests are in Forest and Wildlife Ecology and mechanisms that influence wildlife habitat selection and forest productivity.

Their essay, formally titled Early-Seral Forest: What is it and why is it important - is short, well- illustrated and written in a language than even a sapling [your teenager] will understand. We highly recommend it to parents and grade school science teachers.