While talking to a man who was clearing a path
Following the last big storm blowdown here
I heard something new to me
How the forest succession is changing.
He was lamenting the loss of the old oak trees
Saying they are the last of their kind around here.
There are so many deer in the suburban woods
Browsing the saplings there are no young trees.
Now I am looking at the trees with new eyes.
Will there be no acorns underfoot in a few years?
Forests change. The grand
chestnut trees are relics.
The elm trees are almost gone though I remember them.
I won’t be here to see this future beech forest
Without oaks. By then
no one will know it was like
Under the great oaks and graceful elms or picture a scene
“Under the spreading
chestnut tree…”
But perhaps this prediction is wrong.
If there are no acorns to feed the deer
There will be few deer to eat the oak saplings.
I think the deer will thin out as the old oaks thin out.
And then the oaks could make a comeback.
There’s a balance between eater and eaten.
And there’s another protection for the saplings
Perhaps keeping the deer away like a fence.
When a tree falls and there’s a clearing open to the sky
The prickly berry bushes thrive in a dense thicket.
The saplings can grow there safe from foragers.
I think the oak trees may be around for a long time.
