Somedays I really feel my age. It may be triggered by one of my many aches and pains or just from watching some young folks do something that I used to enjoy doing. Now days, I’m more of an observer than a participant in sports or athletic endeavors, but I like to think I’ve earned my aches and pains.

One benefit of getting older is the widespread honor and appreciation you receive from most everyone younger than you. They honor the wisdom, experience and endurance you bring to everyday life.

Okay, that was BS. If you can still keep up with those young’uns they’ll tolerate your presence, just don’t interfere with their activities or spend too much time explaining things to them. It’s hard to see over that hill, even if you still have your eyesight.

However, age matters in other ways. Currently, humans are trying to sort out climate change. Scientists Beverly Law, William Moomaw and Richard Birdsey observe, “Forests are an essential part of Earth’s operating system. They reduce the buildup of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and land degradation by 30% each year. This slows global temperature increases and the resulting changes to the climate. In the U.S., forests take up 12% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions annually and store the carbon long term in trees and soils.”

“Mature and old-growth forests, with larger trees than younger forests, play an outsized role in accumulating carbon and keeping it out of the atmosphere. These forests are especially resistant to wildfires and other natural disturbances as the climate warms.”

Just as with people, the older trees don’t get the respect they deserve. For example, the authors report, “The majority of national forest area that is mature and old growth is not protected from logging, and current management plans include logging of some of the largest trees still standing.”

“Conserving forests is one of the most effective and lowest-cost options for managing atmospheric carbon dioxide, and mature and old-growth forests do this job most effectively. Protecting and expanding them does not require expensive or complex energy-consuming technologies, unlike some other proposed climate solutions.”

There are efforts underway to take advantage of the value and benefit of old age in forests. In amending management plans for 128 U.S. national forests,the forest service “… seeks to make existing old-growth forests more resilient; preserve ecological benefits that they provide, such as habitat for threatened and endangered species; establish new areas where old-growth conditions can develop; and monitor the forests’ condition over time.”

I greatly applaud these efforts, but I often wonder where we are with respect to people. Taking nothing away from the efforts to protect old forests, do we show the same concern for our aging population? 

I guess I’ll find out.

Additional information:

Beverly Law, William Moomaw, Richard Birdsey, Old Forests Are Critically Important for Slowing Climate Change and Merit Immediate Protection From Logging, January 19, 2024, The Conversation