chestnuts back to eny Woodrats By Joe Kosack By the time oaks had matured beyond pole timber, finally establishing themselves as at least occasional mast producers, the gypsy-moth caterpillar showed up and began stripping them of their foliage, costing the trees at least their mast crop, and often their sustainability. Woodrat colonies suffered again. Complicating the woodrat's survival and isolating its remaining mountain-ridge colonies is fragmented habitat caused by civilization, cultivation and the state's more than 250,000 miles of roads. Development forced woodrats from our valleys long ago, and now it chases them from or isolates them on their remaining high-elevation outposts. In Pennsylvania alone, there's enough roadway to go from sea to shining sea more than 80,000 times without using the same road twice! Increased exposure to raccoon roundworm - almost always deadly to woodrats - is another factor with which woodrats have had to contend. Woodrats acquire MARCH 2017 39