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[-] parricc@lemmy.world 56 points 4 days ago

That includes almost all remaining old growth forests. Almost all of the areas he chose are old growth forests. Here's a map of all remaining old growth forests in the US for comparison.

[-] Goldmage263@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 days ago

I think I see some exploitation of fewer forestry service members now too.

[-] MeThisGuy@feddit.nl 4 points 4 days ago

how does Alaska have so little old growth forest?

I imagine it's hard for forests to grow in such a climate

[-] parricc@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

I've been wondering the same thing ever since seeing the map.

[-] spacesatan@leminal.space 1 points 3 days ago

I'm guessing 'old growth' in this map means like 80 year forests or something. I'm extremely skeptical that this much forest was never logged.

[-] parricc@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

No. You'd be surprised. Old growth specifically means forests where the trees are older than 200 years on average. If you include mature forests, which are defined as 80-200 years old on average, the amount of forest becomes much larger. But also consider how much there used to be, and how much disappeared. The US was the first place in the world to really add forest protections. Theodore Roosevelt alone set aside over 150 million acres as national forests at the turn of the 20th century. We're insanely lucky that happened. I've been lucky enough to have traveled to and seen national forests in almost every US state. It makes me die inside knowing they might get cut down now.

this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2025
944 points (99.4% liked)

Biodiversity

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Biodiversity is a term used to describe the enormous variety of life on Earth. It can be used more specifically to refer to all of the species in one region or ecosystem. Biodiversity refers to every living thing, including plants, bacteria, animals, and humans. Scientists have estimated that there are around 8.7 million species of plants and animals in existence. However, only around 1.2 million species have been identified and described so far, most of which are insects. This means that millions of other organisms remain a complete mystery.

Over generations, all of the species that are currently alive today have evolved unique traits that make them distinct from other species. These differences are what scientists use to tell one species from another. Organisms that have evolved to be so different from one another that they can no longer reproduce with each other are considered different species. All organisms that can reproduce with each other fall into one species. Read more...

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