Project aims to map Adirondack old growth forest land

$1.3 million study tracks carbon storage in New York’s old-growth wilderness

By Mike Lynch

Scientists are trying to determine how much old growth forest remains in the Adirondack and Catskill forest preserves and how much carbon is stored in them. 

The five-year project, which kicked off in 2023, is being funded by the state Department of Environmental Conservation and will cost $1.3 million. It is in partnership with the New York Natural Heritage Program. 

Past studies have determined there to be an estimated 275,000 to 860,000 acres of old growth in the state, which is believed to be the most in the Northeast. Overall, less than 1% of old-growth forests in the Eastern United States remain. 

In the Adirondacks, the topic has been previously researched by people such as noted author Barbara McMartin. 

McMartin estimated there was at least 200,000 acres of old growth forest in the Adirondacks and possibly as much as 500,000 acres. 

In her book, “The Great Forest of the Adirondacks,” she mapped out potential old-growth sites throughout the park, including near Raquette Lake and the Saranac Lake chain of lakes. 

Logging is one of the biggest factors determining old-growth forests. 

In the 1800s, loggers targeted spruce and pine, which were more common in the northern Adirondacks. That left large parts of the northern hardwood forests, dominated by beech and maple, in southern Adirondacks untouched. Some of that land was later bought by the state and preserved as forest preserve. 

“We have some pretty big tracts  in the southern part of the park because of that that we think are our old growth,” said Tim Howard, director of science with the New York Natural Heritage Program.

What is an old-growth forest? 

Understanding the characteristics of old-growth forests is also a big part of the study.

Natural resource planner Sara Hart, who is the project coordinator, said researchers focus on old-growth traits rather than tree age, although she said the majority of old-growth trees are more than 200 years old. Part of the reason to not focus on age is because there are old growth trees in the upper elevations of the High Peaks that could be just 100 years old but are given the designation because of the harsh climate where they live. 

“The beauty of an old growth forest is that there’s a lot of indicators,” Hart said.  “It has canopy gaps and canopy openings. It has old trees and young trees. It has a pit and mound topography. It has a really diverse forest floor, a vegetative forest floor. There’s a thick layer of leaf litter and … a variety of different plant species.” 

There are also certain communities of plants, insects, and wildlife that are found in these landscapes. 

“We have a lot of questions that we still haven’t answered, but this project is definitely helping us identify some of the structural characteristics, and … the heterogeneity, the complexity of these, of the growth forests,” she said. 

Carbon storage research targets climate goals

This study is also looking at the amount of carbon stored both in the trees and in the soil of these old forests. 

“I actually think this is one of the most important and interesting components of this project, because assessing stored carbon in the soils is difficult, and a lot of projects stop short of looking at carbon stored in soils,” Hart said. “So we made a commitment to include that, and not just what makes old growth forests old growth, but also in understanding how much carbon is stored in old growth, so we can better understand their role in kind of like the matrix of forests that contribute to our climate resiliency goals.” 

Hart said the data gathered by this project will give the DEC baseline data that can be used in the future and also a better understanding of what is in the old-growth forest and how they function. This may be important because these forests may face “climate” and “human-induced” pressures down the line, and having the data will help scientists inform future land-use decisions. 

“We just don’t know what the future holds,” she said. “So understanding what we have and how ecosystems work. The more we know about them, the better we’ll be able to respond.”