There was once a vibrant stand of pitch pines here, but the red maples have grown up among them and are now blocking out their sunlight.
Pitch pines are early colonizers of more open forest, but they soon get blocked out as the deciduous trees grow among them.
This place reminds me very much of the place where Tom Walker sold his soul to the devil.
Good to see old field succession proceeding to the next stage. I lived on the East Coast in the 60’s through 80s and I found it depressing to see vast areas of forest dominated by pioneer species, with the old forest giants restricted to a few areas that got some unusual protection, or were too inaccessible to get logged. May those maple grow to the point where you can’t half circle their trunks with your arms and hollows in the trunks provide habitat.
Unfortunately, people here in the East tend to plant Norway Maples–an invasive second only to Callery (aka Bradford) Pears in their ubiquity–vice the native species. This is especially true in re Red Maples because Red Maple leaves can be fatal to horses if eaten in large quantities.