Archangel Ancient Tree Archive

While the Finnish exchange students were visiting the US we went and visited the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive in Copemish, Michigan. We grafted some saplings to achieve the goal of combining one sapling’s qualities with the roots of another that offers resilience to make a saplings that had both great qualities. We watched a scientist clone a sapling as well as touring the facility.

We learned that their goal is to try to increase old growth forest to help defend against diseases and climate change using genetics from really old trees to create new generations of trees by grafting and cloning saplings. We learned that the genetics from trees that have not been cut down yet are better than the trees that have already been cut down once or more.

We can apply our knowledge by planting trees and when logging be mindful of what trees they pick to cut down. They should leave the older trees so the older trees can seed the ground with seeds with a better advantage than seeds from a younger tree. We also should not cut down any of the older trees because genetically they are more resilient than the younger trees.