Forests, and old growth forests especially, provide important eco-system services including carbon sequestration, environmental buffering against storm damage, and ecologically important habitat for plants, animals, and micro-organisms.
Old growth forests are carbon sinks
Old growth forests are almost always carbon sinks, meaning that their intake of CO2 exceeds their losses of CO2. Luyssaert et.al. (2008 p. 213) estimate that forests over 200 years old sequester an astonishing 2.4 tons of carbon per hectare per year.
Old-growth forests provide ecologically important habitat for plants, animals, and microorganisms
In general, the quality of a forest habitat is a function of its size and structural complexity, including the amount of spatial variation in stem density and the amount and size of the large woody debris in the area. Numerous studies including those of Keeton et.al (2007), Franklin and Van Pelt (2004), and D’Amato, Orwig, and Foster (2008) have found that older forests contain these characteristics in greater abundance than younger forests. Keeton concluded that “given the scarcity of old-growth forested sites within the eastern United States, our results suggest that these ecosystem processes would be even further enhanced as mature forests and associated streams develop the structural characteristics of old-growth forests.”
Old growth forests are nurseries of biodiversity
Human-kind has exploited old-growth forests for centuries for their production of substances and chemicals not found anywhere else. Rick Weiss (2005) explains in “Venom as a Prelude to New Drug Treatments” how the venom found in snakes and other creatures found only in old growth forests around the globe have led to the development of important medications and scientific discoveries.
Forests Buffer the Environment from Storm Damage
Scientists agree that the environmental damage caused by Hurricane Katrina might have been drastically mitigated had the Everglades’ own outlying wetlands not been so reduced by development (Padgett, 2008). The impervious surfaces created by development don’t allow storm water to quickly seep into the soil. Instead, when the water has no place to go, flooding occurs.