Cinestudios presents the world premier of the documentary film, The Return of the Old Growth Forests, at its theater on Trinity Campus in Hartford, CT. The film is about an hour long and includes footage of nearby Keney Park (an Olmsted park started in 1895; the Keney Park Sustainability Project is one of our partners). After the free screening, there will be a Q&A with filmmaker Ray Asselin and Professor Susan Masino.
Today there is great interest in ancient, “old-growth” forests. New England, surprisingly, still has some small fragments of such old forests, although they represent less than 1% of its original forest. But a high percentage of central New England land is cloaked in second-growth forest that is recovering from the massive land clearing of former agricultural years. A significant amount of such second-growth could be set aside to eventually become old-growth once again, allowing it to regain greater biodiversity, an improved gene pool, and therefore enhanced resilience and adaptability (not to mention natural beauty).
In this new one-hour film, we will learn how to recognize some of the characteristics of our remnant, northeastern old-growth forests, with scenes from several of our most beautiful.
Photo by John J. Thomas for the KPSP