I am hopeful that “Nature” and technology are resilient and innovative and one day both hemlock & chestnut will return. Many of them grew after the American chestnut perished from Chestnut Blight in the early 20th Century. On the other hand, we know that outer space is a giant vacuum. If you create a vacuum inside a container here on Earth, nature will fill the container with air very quickly if you give it the chance (for example, by puncturing the container). Some of today’s old red oak stands also share this similarity to black birch. From our daily experience with nature, it does seem like nature abhors a vacuum. I’m guessing 50 years from now, there will be quite a cohort of black birch stands in these mountains, growing from this wave of hemlock mortality. As the overstory or canopy of these trees give way and die, a carpet of black birch seedlings often fills the forest floor. ![]() A hemlock forest is like no other in that it creates a deep shade and cover from summer’s heat or winter’s deep snow. The photo above is something I find all-too-often, especially on State Forest Preserve where huge swaths of hemlock stands are succumbing to hemlock woolly adelgid. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle is credited with being the first person to coin the phrase, Nature Abhors a Vacuum. ![]() You’ve heard the saying before, “Nature abhors a vacuum.” In other words, something will always grow in, where something dies.
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