One is put in mind of Shakespeare s warning that virtue, grown to pleurisy, dies of its own too much. Be this as it may, the forest landscape is deprived of a certain exuberance which arises from a rich variety of plants fighting each other for a place in the sun. To the naturalist, the loss of tree diversity is more than simply an economic loss. Naturalists value trees for a number of reasons. With the average white-tailed deer eating 2000 pounds of vegetation each year, we re talking about a 3 billion pound impact.
Trees have complex relationships with the rest of the forest community.
A study by Bern Sweeny of the Stroud Water Research Center examined the interaction of the forests in riparian areas with the stream community. So the impact of losing and changing the forest composition is much greater than we know and has ramifications for the rest of the ecosystem. We re concerned with the loss of sugar maple and conifers. Crossbills are finches that are specially adapted to opening conifer seeds. Pennsylvania s conifers were an important element for those birds during an emergency time.