The hand falling, horse logging, and river drives left the forests capable of vibrant, renewed life. Clearly much had changed from what I knew to what my industry and I were doing now. I stared out a window in the Woodlands office and thought about my plantations. There were many ways to improve—sow more locally adapted seed in the nursery, grow bigger seedlings, prepare the ground more meticulously, plant sooner after logging, remove competing brush. But the clues told me the answer lay in the soil and how the seedlings’ roots connected to it.
