What is “forest disintegration?” As ecosystems are degraded by things like introduced plants and deer overpopulation, they can lose their ability to function as they have for millennia. One of the things that is being lost from many of our forests is this ineffable and vital quality of resilience — their ability to meet adversity with diversity, to respond to death and disturbance with regeneration. “Forest disintegration” refers to the process by which forests lose the qualities, the processes