August 21, 2024

Reviving Ohio’s Potential for Majestic Old-Growth Forests

The beautiful lands of the place we call “Ohio” — named for the Iroquoian word for “great river” — were at one time over 95% forested. Before colonial settlement, Ohio’s landscape was made up of some of the richest, most biodiverse ecosystems in the world. These intact forested living systems were almost entirely destroyed between 1803 and 1940. As European settlement and the Industrial Revolution swept across the Americas, the wealth of these lands fed the growth of a nation.

Of the nearly 28.7 million acres of land in Ohio, about 30% (just shy of 8 million acres) are forested today. Only very recently have Ohio’s lands begun to heal and recover. While it is worth celebrating the recovery, we know Ohio’s forests still have a long way to go to achieve their life-giving, resilient potential.  

We know that intact, connected, and diverse forests and wetlands are critical for biodiversity. They are the foundation of ecological resilience, and are one of our greatest natural assets in the fight against climate change. They provide a foundation for economic sustainability, and their presence contributes to increased human health and wellness.

The Old-Growth Forest Network includes forests that are (1) publicly accessible, (2) ecologically important environments for a variety of native species, and (3) have formal protection against commercial logging. While Ohio boasts a large number of old-growth forests, these forests make up less than 5,000 acres (that’s just .017%) of Ohio’s lands. Most of these forests are between 10 and 100 acres, and are fragmented and surrounded by busy roads and urban and suburban spaces. 

Old-growth forests are special because they are so rare. Take for example:

• In Shelby County, 40 acres of Gross Memorial Woods has been described as one of the least disturbed old-growth woods in west-central Ohio and one of the few mixed-species swamp forests remaining in this part of the state.  
• In Belmont County, 50-acres of old-growth forest in Dysart Woods features trees well over 400 years old.
• In Ashland County, the 8-acre White Pine-Hemlock Forest community in Clear Fork Gorge State Nature Preserve is one of the last and best remaining like it in Ohio.
• At 1,500 acres, Fort Hill in Highland County is extraordinary, sheltering one of the largest and oldest contiguous forests in all of Ohio, and an incredible remnant of the deciduous forest that once covered nearly all the eastern U.S. 

In Ohio, most of the old-growth forests are between 100 and 200 years old, even though native trees like oak, hickory, and tulip can grow to well over 400 years old. Places like Dysart Woods and Johnson Woods allow modern-day Ohioans to catch merely a glimpse of the forests that Ohio’s original human inhabitants lived among.

In Ohio today, less than 15% of our forests are publicly owned; simultaneously, public-owned trees, like those in the Wayne National Forest, are on average older than those on privately-owned forests. While the age of the trees in Ohio’s only National Forest are older than those on privately owned lands, there is purportedly no old-growth forest in the Wayne National Forest. When the U.S. Forest Service was forming the National Forest in the 1930s, the agency purposefully focused on acquiring lands that were barren and scarred and in dire need of reforestation. As a result, the forests in Ohio’s National Forest are second-growth forests mostly between 40 and 100 years old.

The U.S. Forest Service acknowledges that, “despite the lack of older, more mature forest due to the history of the formation of the Wayne National Forest, there is a strong desire from many people to have forests with older trees accessible for recreation and enjoyment.” Unfortunately, Ohio’s public forests are routinely targeted for timbering and extraction. While forested lands in Ohio have increased from 12% in 1945 to 30% in 2018, we’re witnessing an overall decline in forest cover across the state. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimates that less than 3.6% of Ohio’s forest land is protected from commercial logging.  

When it comes to public lands and old-growth forests, we as Ohioans find ourselves in a severe deficit. But we are fortunate that this is a problem within our ability to remedy. Doing so is imperative, for the benefit of all: 

• These forests are critical in the fight against loss of biodiversity, serving as habitat for diverse species of organisms from the micro- to macro- level, and the keystone of the global food system. 
• Forests protect and increase the health of our watersheds, and the shade created from their canopies can be up to 45°F cooler than unshaded surfaces. 
• The process of old-growth recovery — “proforestation” — is the most time-efficient and cost-effective way to harness trees to capture and store carbon.  
• Walking in the forest and breathing in phytochemicals (the airborne compounds trees create to protect themselves) boosts the human immune system. Whether exercising in the forest or sitting still, simply looking at trees has been proven to reduce stress and lower blood pressure.
• Economic growth in rural counties with protected federal public lands significantly outpaces growth in rural counties that have unprotected federal lands. Counties with protected federal lands have higher per capita income and greater job growth than counties with lower percentages of protected lands.
• In Ohio, outdoor recreation generates $24.3 billion in consumer spending annually, 215,000 direct jobs, $7.0 billion in wages and salaries, $1.5 billion in state and local tax revenue.

We have the opportunity to revive impressive expanses of old-growth forests on Ohio’s landscape again. The future of our ecosystems largely depends on the public advocating on these majestic forests’ behalf. In order to ensure that more of Ohio’s forests are managed so they can grow to their full, old-growth potential, it is crucial that Ohioans speak up for their futures.