Old-growth forest times. A socio-historical reading of the ecological literature

Abstract

It is a truism to state that old-growth forests (OGFs) are "old". To be more precise, there are a series of temporal regimes that serve to explain current features and functions characteristic of OGFs: the mythical temporalities of pristine virgin forests, somehow “before” humans (Cronon 1996); the historical development of ancient forests through the linear and periodized time of “continuous forest cover” (Spencer & Kirby 1992); the rhythms and histories of disturbance regimes and gap dynamics that explain the presence of coarse woody debris and the complex vertical and horizontal structures associated with old-growth forests (Ohlson et al 1997; Garbarino et al 2012).