The dwarf forests of Mt. Everett looks like an oriental landscape of bonsai forms. The dome-shaped Mt. Everett rises to 2,508 feet, where ice-sculpted pitch pine, bear oak, gray birch, northern red oak, and red maple fight for dominance. Mt. Everett’s summit is covered in a newly discovered old-growth ecosystem that self-reproduces for many forest generations. A fire, every few hundred years, allows pitch pines to gain dominance and the cycle starts over again. The dwarf pitch pines here are typically 80 to 170 years old, considered by many ecologists to be old growth for this short-lived species. The understory for the pitch pines is blueberry. Huckleberries form the understory for the bear oak. The hemlocks appear larger and craggier and are 250 to 300 years old around Guilder Pond and the mountain laurel is up to 125 years old. The fire tower was removed long ago and sold to a private owner. Sierra Club, Ancient Forests of the NE