Many examples in which this is not true. Many transplant attempts fail. Mentions that restoration experiments can help us understand something about these apparent contradictions and why some transplants fail and others don't. Lists a number of hypotheses that might be tested in restoration experiments. Some typical stages of forest development are not essential and may be bypassed.
Forests require a minimum area and number of components.
Depletion of genetic resources. Classical succession theory suggests that changes occur as the existing plants, animals, microorganisms alter the conditions within the community. However, attempts to predict the stages of succession have frequently failed. Succession studies have been largely descriptive. Succession is slow, thus researchers have been forced to study succession across space rather than time.