Old Growth Urban Forests
Millions of urbanites never see primeval forests during their lives except for the old growth forests found in urban parks. Unfortunately, these forests are on the verge of disappearing because arboreal reproduction is lost to human trampling and park adm
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Robert E. Loeb
Old Growth Urban Forests
Robert E. Loeb The Pennsylvania State University College Place DuBois, PA 15801, USA [email protected]
Additional material to this book can be downloaded from http://extras.springer.com ISSN 2192-4759 e-ISSN 2192-4767 ISBN 978-1-4614-0582-5 e-ISBN 978-1-4614-0583-2 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-0583-2 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2011932490 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Dedicated to my dear wife Susan, son Steven, and granddaughter Morgan for their inspiration of my research on old growth urban forests.
Preface
My purpose in writing this book is to motivate urban foresters and ecologists to break through a barrier created by the hallowed concept of old growth forest as “undisturbed by humans.” Many urban forests are composed of old trees and admired by visitors as being old growth forests. However, the traditional scientific education afforded foresters and ecologists rejects classification of any urban forest as old growth because the forest did not achieve the successional climax state as a result of human disturbances. Research on urban forests is not hindered by an artificial conceptual framework of age in rural forests. Recognizing old growth forests in urban settings expands the spectrum of urban forest research to include a focus on long-term changes in the relationships between human-caused changes and urban forest dynamics. Even foresters and ecologists conducting research in rural old growth forests will reap the benefits of understanding critical issues such as species introductions and climate change that have affected old growth urban forests across our planet for centuries. Because an unfamiliar genre is best exemplified by specific examples from a real-world context, I provide old growth original research from the forest region and metropolitan areas I have studied for decades. A critical analysis of the research is provided to orient current and future urban foresters and ecologists as well as advocates for the forests to the historical ecology methods employed to conduct research in old growth urban forest dynamics. This resea
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