Primeval forest

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Primeval forest is a term often used interchangeably with old growth forest to refer to substantial wooded areas which have been untouched by humans and recent storms or fires. Their composition thus has been determined solely by the effects of natural processes (and perhaps fire suppression), resulting in the presence of many huge old trees, standing dead trees, substantial variation in ages of trees, and a thick forest floor marked by fallen trees in various stages of decay. Technically an "old growth forest" can develop within several centuries after the effects of humans have been removed, while the term "primeval forest" better applies to an area where humans have never been.

The largest such areas in the world today are probably in the boreal zones of Canada and Russia and in remote areas of the Brazilian rainforests. In Western Europe and the United States, it was long believed that virgin stands of timber were virtually absent as a result of wholesale clearcutting, aggressive agricultural clearing, and human-caused fires. However, American forest scientists have recently employed satellite imaging to discover remote pockets of forests, many of which have subsequently been demonstrated to be primeval. Such forests have also been identified relatively close to heavily populated areas, such as on difficult to reach hillsides or on tracts which had been preserved by private landowners.

In addition to the rainforests, there are many other areas in which environmentalists call for protection of these valuable habitats, including the sprawling Bielowieza forests on the frontier between Poland and Belarus, and the largest remaining European primeval forests which lie deeper into Russia. Well-known American old growth forests include the giant sequoia and redwood forests of California, riverside stands of centuries-old bald cypress in North Carolina, and a patch of ancient pitch pines in the Hudson River Valley a mere fifty miles from New York City.