The mid-Holocene Tsuga canadensis (hemlock) decline, eastern North America — age versus causes: a reply to Payette.

A reply is made to comments by Payette (2004) concerning the paper that attempted to determine the age of the Tsuga canadensis decline in eastern North America (Bennett and Fuller, 2002). It is pointed out that his criticisms of the methods used are all aspects covered in the original paper, and which make little, if any, difference to the result obtained. However, ecological aspects of the decline were outside the scope of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]