An ecologist speaks for the silent giants: Old-growth trees

The vista from the steps of Arlington House offers one of the most spectacular views of Washington. The scene unfurls, from the sloping lawns of Arlington National Cemetery to Memorial Bridge to the Lincoln Memorial and on to the Mall. The architectural geometry is leavened by the snaking Potomac River.

But I have huffed and puffed my way up to this high ground to see something more ancient and, in its own way, defining of the nation’s history. Joan Maloof is waiting to show me the other side of the mansion, a pocket of forest known as the Arlington Woods. Only 12 acres remain of what was once a sylvan 600 acres, part of the 1,100-acre estate owned by G.W.P. Custis, the adopted grandson of George Washington (and father-in-law of Robert E. Lee).

Entering the woodland is tricky; there are no easy trails, and we have to leap across a drainage swale. But once we are in the heart of this forested dell, the sounds of the riding mowers and the tour trams and even the passenger jets are muted. They are replaced with shrieks of blue jays and the white-noise rustle of the wind through the leaves. Maloof, who is 61 and trim, with piercing slate-blue eyes, seems to both relax and come alive in this place. She blithely clambers onto a huge fallen trunk and uses it as a pixie perch to look up to the forest’s light-filtering canopy.

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