Already too many cultures there for grandpa's taste

not necessarily stronger, but definitely more resilient

Oaks gentrifying the forest

True, but the planting of spruce and pine trees in areas that were deforested has created these huge monoculture “forests” that struggle to get the deciduous trees.

This is a fun comic because it tells two stories.

The old oak may have remembered the forest as it was and begrudge the evergreen new growth …. But that is a sign it’s regrowing.

Alternately … yeah, the monoculture replanting for forests is not great for the environment and helps to spread diseases.

Racist grandpa tree got a point but also … can’t see the forest for the trees.

And the trees are all kept equal by hatchet, axe, and saw

That's really country specific, in the UK we only have one pine and it's not that common. We have a huge issue currently because after the wars they replanted a lot of land with pine as it was fast growing and we needed wood, but now they've outcompeted the native trees so there's a big program to get rid of the pine and plant native trees, but it needs to be done really slowly or the whole forest is messed up.

Grandpa: Japanese spruce, Chinese pine. They all look the same to me.

To grandpa all evergreens look like pines

He's a bit... stuck in a rut

Yeah they are actually terrible. Nothing else survives really. No birds, no animals. They're eerily quiet.

Depends what type of pine and where in the world it is...