Scientists have discovered the world's oldest forest in an abandoned quarry near Cairo, New York. The 385-million-year-old rocks contain the fossilized woody roots of dozens of ancient trees.
Daintree Rainforest
The Daintree is a national icon. It's home to the oldest tropical rainforest on earth, estimated to be about 130 million years old. It's also Australia's largest rainforest, incorporating an area roughly 1200 sq km, and supports a staggering selection of animal and bird life.
Tongass National Forest, Alaska
Tongass National Forest is home to some of the oldest trees on earth — many of them dating back more than 800 years.
In comparison to the world's five largest forests including the Amazon and the Congo, the boreal is the most untouched and offers one of the best opportunities to 'get it right' when it comes to conservation.
The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest is home to the oldest trees in the world, bristlecone pines. Some of these living trees exceed 4000 years of age and exhibit spectacular growth forms of twisted and beautifully colored wood.
The Huon pine is Australia's oldest living tree and is one of the oldest living organisms on earth. Individuals have been known to reach an age of 3,000 years. Fossil records from a tree found in a boggy area in the south west of Tasmania were dated at 3,462 years!
The oldest trees in the world are the bristlecone pines (Pinus longaeva) of California's White Mountains, USA.
Virgin or first-growth forests are old-growth forests that have never been logged. The concept of diverse tree structure includes multi-layered canopies and canopy gaps, greatly varying tree heights and diameters, and diverse tree species and classes and sizes of woody debris.
An example of this kind of forest is British Columbia's Coastal Temperate Rainforest, one of the rarest types of forest on Earth. This type of forest only ever covered about 2.5 percent of the earth's surface. Over time, much of the Coastal Temperate Rainforest has been heavily impacted by human settlement and logging.
Almost half of Australia's identified old-growth forest is in NSW, mostly on public land. More than 73% of Australia's identified old-growth forests are in formal or informal nature conservation reserves. In 2001, Western Australia became the first state in Australia to cease logging in old-growth forests.
The region, along with a small number of other rainforest areas on the east coast of Australia, collectively form the oldest continually surviving rainforest communities in the world.
Let the trees stand tall for centuries to come. Tasmania's forests are home to the tallest flowering trees on the planet. Centuries-old, these tall trees are the lungs of our land.
Most of the Gondwanan forests were gone by 2 million years ago, but there remain some isolated remnants. These include the cool temperate rainforests of eastern Australia, from Tasmania to the high mountains of New South Wales and Queensland.
Archaeologists have found a piece of a stone axe dated as 35,500 years old on sacred Aboriginal land in Australia, the oldest object of its type ever found.
Nearly 50% of our forest cover has been cleared in the last two centuries, making Australia one of the worst developed countries for deforestation.
However, one species in particular outlives them all. The Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva) has been deemed the oldest tree in existence, reaching an age of over 5,000 years old. The bristlecone pine's success in living a long life can be attributed to the harsh conditions it lives in.
#1 Amazon. The undisputed number 1 is probably the most famous forest on earth, the South American Amazon. The forest of all forests, with its fabulous 5,500,000 km2 , not only has the largest area, but is also home to one in ten species existing on earth.
The world's rarest tree is Pennantia baylisiana, also called Three Kings Kaikomako. It was near extinction because the only remaining specimen was female and could not reproduce. However, botanists found viable fruits and planted them within botanical gardens around the world to save it.
And the least tree-filled countries? There are five places with no forest whatsoever, according to World Bank's definition* - Nauru, San Marino, Qatar, Greenland and Gibraltar - while in a further 12 places there is less than one per cent.
1. Russia. Russia isn't only the biggest country by land area; it also has the largest number of trees. The overall size of the forest regions in Russia is approximately 8,249,300 sq.
Nigeria, Indonesia top deforestation list, China lowest | Reuters.
The oldest single living thing on the planet is a gnarled tree clinging to rocky soil in the White Mountains of California. This Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) has withstood harsh winds, freezing temperatures and sparse rainfall for more than 5,000 years.
King Billy pines are estimated to grow for up to 2000 years, while the subalpine pencil pines can have 1000 years on the clock.