OLD GROWTH FOREST

97% of California's forests have been logged since the gold rush, and though most were replaced with new growth, the character of new growth forests is markedly different from the huge trees 200 years and more in age. And many animals lose their homes and food sources when forests are cut.

In the 3% of old growth forests, as shown in this photo of a stand of ponderosa, sugar pine, and douglas fir on Cobb, the undergrowth is thinned by periodic natural fires, while the big trees remain and spread their canopy, giving an open feeling with a pine needle carpet. Cobb has 400 acres of old growth forest, semi-protected as State property, and several hundred acres more which have fortuitously avoided the chain saw. But also on the mountain are some large tracts owned by loggers.