txt: seed
When the trees scatter their seed to the soil it's like a kind of insurance.
Just in case.
In case of generations passing. Treeless.
Someday, new trees will grow up where there are none.
A young forest will try to imitate itself. Remembering the way things used to be.
My first impression of the Schuylkill Center was that it seemed wild, untamed, and maybe not as beautiful as I would have expected. Even to the uninformed visitor of the Schuylkill Center it is apparent that some kind of struggle is underway.
In fact, it is the struggle for survival and precedence between native and invasive species. Aspects of this struggle take place at microscopic levels, while others are visible as you meander along trails lined with deer fencing to prevent overbrowsing. "The past agricultural use of the land has strongly influenced the makeup of [the] current woodlands. Continued disturbance of the soil eliminated much of the seed source for native, successional meadows, edges and woods. This disturbance has allowed invasive, non-native vegetation to thrive as this old farmland reverts to forest." While this is upsetting, it is amazing to think that it is at all possible for a piece of forest, stripped down to the soil for farming, could regenerate itself at all. I thought of the trees, and the way they invest in their future.