windthrow

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Series Begun:
2026-04-09
Series Updated:
2026-06-04
Description:

Windthrow (n.) The uprooting or breaking of trees by wind; also, the trees so displaced. Occurs when lateral force exceeds the tensile strength of root systems, or when root systems have been compromised by prior stress—rot, drought, shallow soil, the slow work of years. The resulting gap in the canopy is called a windthrow opening. Light enters. The forest floor, long suppressed, responds. Ecologists note that windthrow is among the primary mechanisms by which closed-canopy forests renew themselves: what falls makes room; what was underneath begins, at last, to grow.

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