Former REU (2000) and Ph.D. student (2007) Tony D'Amato along with HF ecologists David Orwig and David Foster recently compared the understory communities (herbs, shrubs, and tree seedlings and saplings) of old-growth and second-growth eastern hemlock forests (Tsuga canadensis) in western Massachusetts, USA. Second-growth hemlock forests originated following clearcut logging in the late 1800s and were 108 to 136 years