The library

Primers

Read-through pieces. Each one is roughly 800–1,500 words, source-cited, with at least one labelled diagram. Audio narrations and cover illustrations are added as they are produced.

• What is old growth?

  The five learnable indicators of old-growth forest, why old growth differs from a stand of old trees, and why no fast version of it exists. Foundational.

• Why old growth matters

  Carbon, biodiversity, watershed regulation, mycorrhizal networks. The systems-level case for protecting old growth that has nothing to do with sentiment.

• How old growth survives

  Forests survive their worst days by traits, geography, and refugia. The global science of biological legacies — what gets through catastrophic disturbance, why retention forestry exists, and the case for preventive protection of mature and old-growth forests worldwide.

• The mycorrhizal network

  The underground forest. Why fungal networks matter, why intact soil matters, why “just plant more trees” does not replace old growth.

• Forestry practices, best to worst

  Selective harvest, indigenous-led forestry, FSC-certified plantation, monoculture plantation, clear-cutting, illegal logging. Honest evaluation, not industry-bashing.

• Forest types of the world

  Boreal, temperate rainforest, temperate deciduous, tropical, mediterranean, mangrove. Where old growth still exists in each.

• Reading the forest

  Dendrology basics. How to identify the dominant species near you, how to read approximate tree age without coring, how to spot decay versus health.

• What this site does not cover, and why

  Voluntary carbon-offset / REDD+ project ratings, single forest-certification-label endorsements (FSC vs SFI vs PEFC), "best biome" rankings, "trillion trees" target verdicts, and producer-country land-use policy positions are not on the map. Here is what the IPCC, FAO, WRI, and named forest authorities actually publish.

Country snapshots

Narrative pieces about specific places: where old growth still exists, what is being lost, what is being done. Each snapshot links the underlying public data to the people on the ground.

• USA — Pacific Northwest

  Old-growth temperate rainforest from northern California to Alaska. Tongass, Olympic, Mount Hood, Redwoods. The fight for the last 5%.

• Canada — British Columbia

  The most contested old-growth temperate rainforest in the developed world. Fairy Creek, Walbran, the 2020 Old Growth Strategic Review, and what has and has not been done since.

Project cards

Single-page guides. Things a 14-year-old can do this Saturday with no special equipment, that produce a real data point. Designed for teachers, parents, scout leaders, and curious teenagers.

• Find your biggest tree

  Locate, measure, photograph, and log the largest tree in a chosen area. Universal — works in any forested region.

• Become an iNaturalist contributor

  Sign up, photograph 10 forest species near you, learn to identify them. Real contribution to citizen science with a permanent record.

How to use this library

Everything here is published under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0. You may copy, translate, adapt, and republish any of it — please keep the source citations intact, and please publish your derivative work under the same licence so the next person can keep building.

If you are a teacher, an after-school program, a scout troop, a community group, a parent, a librarian, or a person who works with kids: please take what is useful and pass it on. None of it is locked. None of it requires you to credit us beyond the citation chain.

If you find an error, an out-of-date source, or a claim that overstates the underlying evidence: how to flag it.