The Pine Is The Oldest Living Organism On The Planet

The Redwoods forest is home of one the tallest and oldest trees. Some redwoods can live to be 2,000 years old and can grow over 200 feet tall and 16 to 20 feet in diameter. 96 percent of the old growth forest has been logged

Every forest has a story to tell. By looking closely at its habitants, that story can be interpreted. Much of this narrative is written in the trees: their age, their tolerance to shade, and the rate at which they grow are all characteristics that can imply a lot about their environment. Exploring these relationships and how they connect with each other can indicate the health and history of the land. Heiberg Forest, located in northern New York, was once used for agricultural purposes in the 1800-1900’s. (Nowak, Lecture Notes) Much of the land once used for farming was left to regrow back into a young forest. The life history of different tree species can be determined by examining the most common species in Heiberg.

“As is the generation of leaves, so is that of humanity. The wind scatters the leaves on the ground, but the live timber burgeons with leaves again in the season of spring returning. So one generation of men will grow while another dies” (6.146-50)

The annual rate of precipitation, and elevational range once generated a strong foundation for a wide diversity of vegetation

The topography of the island is also of note. The west end of the island features a closed-canopy forest with more hardwood trees. The east end of the island is better characterized as a “boreal forest,” a term used to describe regions that are mostly covered by coniferous forests. It is good to note that the balsam fir is found on both ends of the island, but that samples used in the study from the west end of the island were, on average, older, but shorter, than those samples found on the east side of the island.

The ancient forests of the Northeast aren’t the only aspect of the bioregion that’s fate have been at perpetual risk since the early settlement of Europeans. There is no question that forests still dominate the landscape of Northeastern region accounting for “60% of the total land area, and in New England alone, the coverage is 80%”. Still the species that exist within the understory of the forests have undergone an equally dramatic transformation because of human interaction with the land and the harvest of its resources. Some species in the understory of the mixed forests of the Northeast have been driven out of the region, are under intense ecological pressure, are on the brink of extinction, or have already gone extinct in the region. Perhaps one of the most harmful and impactful effects colonization of the Northeast has had on the resources of the land is the introduction of non-native species and diseases into the region. Over time the overall makeup of the forests have changed drastically as an example, “…the American chestnut once made up as much as 25% of the trees in some areas and was economically the most important hardwood in the Eastern forests”. The introduction of chestnut blight at the turn of the century accounts for

The Appalachians span over a distance of 1,600 miles, ranging across 14 states, from Newfoundland in the North, to Alabama in the South. The Appalachians are the oldest chain of mountains on the North American continent. With forest, comes forest fires, some natural and some prescribed by humans. In order to reduce the calamitous damage caused by natural wildfires, the technique of prescribed fires is used. This is done by diminishing the amounts of trees, shrubs, and brush in the intended area. By doing this, new native plant growth is encouraged and it helps maintain some plant and animal species that depend on the periodic fires. With this man made force comes numerous effects on vegetation, wildlife, and the human impact.

As the spread of this region contains coastal borders as well as a “natural region biogeography of gulf coast prairies and marshes”. Where the two defining attributes to the area plays a role in the salinity of the soil which require a plant to be highly salt tolerant. Because of the marshes and coastal waters containments of salt evapotranspiration of the water increases the salinity of the surrounded areas subsequently resulting in the visibility of the Live Oak in the area. Live Oak’s visibility in the area is marked by a stripping pattern indicated on the map can then be inferred that the species has a high salt tolerance because of its successional status persisted over time such as the century tree found at Texas A&M University which has held place for over a hundred

This tree resides in Oregon’s Willamette Mission State Park, where in 1834 the first white settler arrived to teach Native Americans. With the Black Cottonwood nearby, the missionary expanded until the 1861 great flood devastated their farm. Unfazed, this robust Black Cottonwood simply kept growing. Today, it’s nearly 300 years old. This tree now revels in the peace and quiet of its bordering 1,600 acres of woodland.

To make matters worse California is in the middle of a devastating drought, causing many forest fires. But these trees remain unfazed, as a matter of fact fire is an innate part of this ecosystems, many animals depend on fires for survival like the black-backed woodpecker who their main source of food are tree inhabiting beetles. When the bark is chard this helps the woodpecker find its food easier. Unlike a lot of other trees sequoias need fire to reproduce. The fire also does 3 things for the sequoias: it heats up and opens the cones releasing seeds, second,the fire makes and opening in the canopy of the trees to allow sunlight to shine through, and finally, the fire gives the sequoias seeds a nutrient rich place to grow (Yosemite, 2017). When winter comes around the ice pack covers the seeds allowing the seeds to be in the right condition to start the process of germination. In the episode they talk to a forest ecologist that works for the U.S geological survey, his job is to monitor the trees response to the drought and in recent years by recording the water content in the clippings they have found that the water content is decreasing. Which is a warning sign that the tree might be dying or under stress from the drought. When a sequoia is healthy is clippings are green and have a higher water content, but since the water content is decreasing that the amount of water to keep the cells at an

The three-needled Rocky Mountain ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa var. scopulorum) is the prevalent form of pine throughout the Colorado Plateau. Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii) is commonly associated with the ponderosa pine at lower elevations as well as the New Mexico locust (Robina neomexicana). At higher elevations it shares habitat with southwestern white pine (Pinus strobiformis), Rocky Mountain white fir (Abies concolor var. concolor), Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir, (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca), and quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides). Understory plants which are commonly found in these forests include grasses such as mountain muhly and Arizona fescue, forbs such as lupine, as well as apache plume, buckbrush, currant, and cliffrose.

The strategy is to assess what is going on with Withering Pines. The financial information and business model need to be looked at. (Joyner, Frantz & Crane, n.d, P.59). The business tends to be surviving on donations (Joyner, Frantz & Crane, n.d, P.59).

The researchers also discovered that another bristlecone pine tree might supersede Methuselah. Some organizations said that the tree is about 5,065 years old. On the other hand, the existence and the age of the tree could not be confirmed by the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive and the forester. They are still investigating the tree, according to Debra Schweizer, the spokeswoman for Inyo National

According to astronomical research and geological evidence, scientist indicate the universe is approximately thirteen thousand eight hundred and twenty billion years old. The first link to humanity started with a primate group called Ardipithecus. While our ancestors have been around for about six million years, the modern form of humans only evolved about two hundred thousand years ago. The age of the Earth is estimated about four point fifty four billion years because that is the age of the oldest rocks with fossil evidence of life on earth. The oldest rocks on Earth found to date are the Acasta Gneisses in northwestern Canada near the Great Slave Lake, which are four point three billion years old. The study of the origin of life on Earth, more specifically abiogenesis, is the natural process of life arising from non-living matter. Life on Earth is believed to have began from organic compounds about three point eight to four billion years ago. Despite several competing theories for how life arose on Earth scientist only know when life first appeared on Earth and are still far from answering how it appeared. Since it is hard to prove or disprove them, no fully accepted theories of the origin of life exists.

The wild west wind came down through the fields, rousing the deer from their reverie, and swaying the bee-studded flowers. From its highest bough to the loose sand on its mighty roots, the ancient tree quivered lightly, yet was untroubled by the breeze. Many a storm had passed over the tree, yet no rain had managed to drown those fathomless roots, no hail had managed to bite the iron bark.