New York City may be a symbol of modernity and human achievement, but just a few hours from one of the world’s most famous cities is not one but two ancient forests, which precede the arrival of man and building of skyscrapers by just a few hundred million years. Just over three hours from New York City is the Gilboa Fossil Forest, once believed to be the oldest forest in the world, hidden deep in the Catskill Mountains. This remarkable site in the Hudson Valley dates back a staggering 380 million years give or take. For comparison, the Amazon rainforest is believed to be between 15 and 55 million years old, and scientists once thought it was the grand-daddy (well, grand-grand-grand to the nth degree daddy) of the world’s forests.
In 2009, scientists Charles Ver Straeten, Linda Van Aller Henrick, and Frank Mannolini stumbled upon an ancient root system in an abandoned quarry in Cairo — New York, that is, not Egypt — only 40 minutes from Gilboa, which put Gilboa’s claim to the oldest forest into question. After years of investigating, an entire prehistoric forest floor was revealed at Cairo. The Cairo forest is 387 million years old, making it officially the world’s oldest forest (for now) and making the Hudson Valley, already known for its history, charm, and nature, an integral site in the formation of the world that we know today.
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The very long history of the forests at Cairo and Gilboa
ancient root imprint red and gray mud – @jeffsenterman / Instagram
When one thinks of “scale” and “forest,” a few images often come to mind: the tallest and biggest trees in the world hidden deep in California’s old-growth redwood forests or the world’s largest rainforest of the Amazon covering 1.4 billion acres and spanning nine countries. And now, you can add New York’s Hudson Valley to the list as the region with the world’s oldest forests. Gilboa’s significance remained unknown until 1869, when the town was flooded and workmen found fossilized stumps while repairing the road. More specimens were found when the town was razed to build a dam in 1920, and Winifred Goldring, the first female state paleontologist in the U.S., named these ancient trees Eospermatopteris. But the full form of the trees wasn’t known until 2007, when another discovery of fossils allowed scientists to declare that these trees were the oldest in the world.
With the revelation of Cairo forest in 2009, the implications were huge, as the planet was much warmer due to the absence of trees and presence of carbon dioxide. While plants first arrived on the scene about 470 million years ago, it took another 100 million for trees to evolve. The ones in Cairo were not only the first, but were more complex than those that came later at Gilboa. Cairo’s trees were the first to pull carbon dioxide from the air and they were the first with shady canopies, all of which cooled the Earth down enough to create the conditions for land-dwelling vertebrates to emerge. These trees were also the first with complex root systems, which transformed the soil and created new ecosystems.
Can you visit New York’s ancient forests?
Gilboa Fossils sign behind fossilized tree stumps – @jmw091011 / Instagram
At this time, the Cairo site is closed to the public in order to preserve this monumental forest and allow researchers to conduct their work. However, in 2022, Cairo received funding to create more protective barriers around the site and to possibly build an educational center attached to it, so visitors can learn more about this forest. The Gilboa Museum allows you to see some of the world’s oldest tree fossils and get a greater insight into how this forest was formed. New York State passed legislation to create a geological trail, which reportedly will include Cairo and Gilboa, so this may be another way for visitors to explore these sites in the future.
If you really want to scratch that forest itch, fret not; one of America’s oldest tourist attractions, the unique and historic Kaaterskill Falls is just a 20-minute drive from Cairo (or 40 minutes from Gilboa) and will allow you to immerse yourself in the still-very-old forests of the Catskill Mountains. They’re not as old as those in Cairo or Gilboa, but at least some of the rocks in this area date back to the Devonian Era, when the Catskills were still a river delta and the first trees were growing in Cairo. Although the most convenient way to explore the ancient forests of the Hudson Valley is by car, it’s also possible to combine a train and car to do so. There are daily two-hour trains from New York City to Hudson, the “downtown of Upstate New York.” From there, it’s a 20-minute car ride to Cairo or an hour to Gilboa if you’d rather skip Manhattan’s soul-crushing traffic and save the drive for the lush forests of the Catskills instead.
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Read the original article on Islands.
