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Last week, the Old Growth Forest Network added the Chestnut Loop Trail in McDowell Nature Preserve to its map of the country’s oldest forests. It’s a secondary forest, which means it's been cut once before and regrown. But the nonprofit looked at aerial imagery of the site and confirmed this patch of forest has been protected for over a century.
I met Kelly Sides at the McDowell Nature Preserve this week to hike the mile-long loop. She’s an ecologist and a natural resources supervisor with Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation. She said a community member nominated the forest to the Old Growth Forest Network.
“It has been protected for at least 130 years, or has been standing for at least 130 years,” Sides said. “We've estimated the trees may be as old as 190 years old.”
An old-growth forest is more than just a forest with old trees. It has those, yes, but it also has young trees and more middle-aged trees. The canopy has layers — when one tree falls, it opens a gap, allowing young trees to flourish. The elder, now deceased tree decomposes naturally on the forest floor, creating new habitat for all manner of critters. These primary and secondary forests are like an intergenerational home, a cemetery and a nursery all rolled into one.
“As the trees die and decompose, they create soil cycling, which allows new trees to grow up,” Sides said. “We have nice canopy gaps that are created that allow interesting things to pop up. Sometimes wildflowers need those canopy gaps.”
To illustrate this natural cycle, we stepped off trail and knelt over a long-dead log.
“The main thing about pulling up a log is that when you pull it up, you’ve got to put it down right exactly where you pulled it up,” Sides said, fingernails digging into the soft wood. The log creaked and protested before revealing its dusty underbelly. A few millipedes scurried underneath through the powdery soil.
We did this a few times, uncovering snails and worms. Sides said it’s been too dry for salamanders, which prefer moister habitats.
“Chipmunks are very cute little guys that like to live in cavities,” Sides said. For some small mammals, the hollowed-out tree becomes a kind of highway along the forest floor. “They don't like to walk on the ground itself. It's a little bit too loud for them.”
The Chestnut Loop Trail is a dry-mesic oak forest, which basically means it's got a bit of everything. Orange oak leaves and yellow birches cover the slopes. Our steps were noisy as we crunched leaves underfoot, periodically clomping off trail to investigate another log.
“We do have something kind of fun, but you'd have to be a pretty good naturalist to spot it, which is American chestnut sprouts,” Sides said. Once common throughout the United States, an invasive fungal blight killed most of this trail’s namesake in the early 20th century.
Only about 1% of the original forest that once covered much of the United States remains. It’s rare and getting rarer — and the Trump Administration is removing a decades-long rule that keeps federally protected old-growth from timber harvesting.
To get on the Old Growth Forest Network Map, the forest needs to be publicly accessible. The mapmakers want people out in the woods, learning about these ecosystems. The hope is that if enough people get outside and turn over enough logs, they’ll see why these places are worth protecting.
“I just want people to, like, appreciate that that's something very special Mecklenburg has, and especially given how urban we are, it's very, very unique,” Sides said. “I would just love for people to come out and check out their closest nature preserve.”
