Old-Growth Again (OGA) is a "hands-on" organization restoring logged forestlands back to their ancient form. Restoration forestry works with the forest to grow large and old trees over time and maintain them in perpetuity. Forests of large trees sequester enormous quantities of carbon from the atmosphere. Consistently increasing and permanent carbon sequestration adds to climactic stability and global cooling. Also, allowing ancient trees to return to the forests in perpetuity helps reverse biological diversity declines by recreating old-growth habitat. It takes time, money and a lot of physical work, but dramatic changes occur in relatively short time. Come visit and see what we’ve accomplished since 1995.

Your furniture purchase funds the restoration work entirely. Thank you for your support. We hope to purchase and restore nearby forests in the coming years. There is no lack of overly harvested forestland anywhere in the world. We are regularly asked: How can you save forestlands if you are cutting trees to make furniture? For a complete answer, please download our Forest Restoration Manual. This 62-page PDF file describes OGA’s pioneering transformation of a logged land into a beauty-filled productive forest where trees become Old-Growth Again. A short answer to the question is below:

OGA works with the forest to restore the severe changes caused by industrial logging in the 1950’s and 60’s. For example, the softwood timber volume (Redwood, Douglas-fir and Sugar Pine) was reduced from an average of over 50,000 board feet per acre to less than 5,000 board feet to the acre (over 90% reduction) while leaving many of the hardwoods intact (Tan Oak, Madrone, Live Oak, Bay Laurel, Manzanita and others). The standing softwood timber volume of the forest was reduced to less than 10% of its standing capacity while the hardwood volume jumped from approximately 15% of total volume to approximately 50%. The forest became an overcrowded fire hazard of suppressed and poor quality trees that is nothing like the old forest it replaced. OGA begins by thinning the hardwoods at the same rate they are growing (about 35% each decade) so they will not increase in actual volume over time. Many of the thinned trees are of poor quality or are suppressed trees that will not survive and contribute to the fire hazard. Each thinning is a labor intensive effort (no chemicals are ever used!) that lowers the fire hazard while improving overall tree quality and spacing. This allows the softwoods to slowly regain dominance of the forest once again.

OGA also thins the softwoods (Redwood, Douglas-fir and Sugar Pine) at 10% per decade while the forest is growing approximately 35% per decade at this point in its maturation. OGA thins at this conservative rate to make our “mature” and “young” Redwood grades of furniture. Careful soil building and tree planting practices are an integral part of restoration. For example, OGA plants several thousand 3 to 4 ft tall seedlings with hearty well-established 5 gallon root balls each winter. The trees are grown in our nursery and planted in-between trees in thinned areas where the canopy is mostly closed. OGA takes extreme measures to care and rebuild the forest soil. All leaves and small branches are cut to below 1 ft of height and spread on the forest floor to add nutrients and structure to the soil. Most down woody debris that was inherited on our lands is retained and each 10-year thinning adds more. We thin “from below” and remove many lower limbs of retained trees to lower the risk of catastrophic fire. We retain most “wildlife” trees (snags, dead top trees, etc.) and set aside 5 trees (of all species) per acre to never be cut. Combining these steps and many more helps the forest develop large mature and old-growth trees over time.

Restoration forestry is a more conservative forestry practice than “sustainable forestry”. For example, forests managed under a restoration forestry practice sequester two to three times more carbon in perpetuity than forests managed "sustainably." OGA’s mission is to educate by example and spread Restoration forestry knowledge and use. Over time, we believe restoration forestry's growing track record will make irrelevant the "jobs versus environment" argument between preservationists and their industry counterparts. Our forest restoration manual includes additional reading references and the legal framework (conservation easements) to restore any forest and keep the restoration in place through subsequent ownerships. If you are interested in developing restoration forestry, please email Raul Hernandez at info@oldgrowthagain.org.

OGA’s mission is to demonstrate how restoration forestry allows both the forest and the human community around it to flourish symbiotically. It is a long-term example of how a forest can contribute to the human society surrounding it while flourishing in all respects simultaneously. A forest managed this way for just a few decades is a striking contrast to an industrial or even a “sustainably” managed forest. To read more, please download our Forest Restoration Manual.