Chestnut sprouts and beech disease in one forest

July 11, 2026Worcester/Monadnock Plateau

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On a July afternoon in the Groton woods, two tree catastrophes are unfolding in the same patch of shade. saplings are sprouting from old roots and stumps — survivors of a blight that eliminated four billion trees across eastern forests a century ago. Those sprouts represent resilience of a sort, a genetic memory of species that once defined the canopy.

But a few hundred yards away, trees are failing to — a nematode-driven pathogen now documented across more than 30 sites in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Unlike chestnut's abrupt collapse, beech is failing slowly, tree by tree, leaving a forest structure intact but hollow. Two mast failures, one unresolved.

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