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Notes off a soiled cuff: Caterpillars chew on my memories, and why the topic matters for wildlife

Pennsylvania has been battling the gypsy moth for decades, an invasive caterpillar that can wreak havoc on trees species such as oaks. That can mean bad news for wildlife like deer, turkeys and bears that depend on acorns from oaks as an important part of their diet. (USDA Forest Service photo by Tom Coleman)

It’s strange how some memories seem to be burned into your brain, even really old ones you would never expect …
More than four decades later, I still clearly remember being in a stand of oaks on a mountainside above Tyrone, during a sunny afternoon at about this time of year. I was a very inexperienced reporter for the Altoona Mirror in 1980, sent out to cover the “new” scourge of gypsy moth caterpillars that was about to defoliate a wide swath of forest in Blair County, Pa.

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