When Spring finally occurs in New England, I always end up slightly claustrophobic.  The trees suddenly fill in, and because the young wood is extremely flexible and filled with moisture, branches are suddenly reaching down.  Yesterday, working around the biggest Japanese Maple and the Copper Beech was especially odd and it took awhile to understand why: not only had both trees fully expanded their leaves, they were also giving a red cast to the light.  By summer, one is accustomed to the red light beneath those trees, but in the spring, to go from no real canopy to a nearly solid red one is disconcerting.  It was, I think, especially noticeable because it was a cloudy day with diffuse light and no real shadows.

  The speed is the most remarkable aspect of the transformation.  For example, a young sugar maple by the barn has added four inches of height in about two days time.  That, when you think about it, is an impressive level of energy and cell division.

Given a chance, eastern North American forests regrow with astonishing speed.  The composition of early successional woodlands is, of course, radically different from climax forests.  However, in fifty years a Connecticut field can go from open meadow to a closed canopy of trees, many of which will be eight inches or more in diameter.  Nowadays, of course, it will also be an utterly impenetrable tangle of the big four invasives: barberry, winged euonymus, multi-flora rose, and Asian bittersweet.  Things grow, maybe not the things you want to have grow, but they do grow.