Subject: DO clearings occur naturally in forests

Our contention is that clearings occur naturally in forests only 
when ponds are slowly filled in or drained or because of fire.  
In either case the forest should slowly reclain this space.  
Thus if one finds a clearing in the woods one can reasonably 
expect that it is manmade even though it could be 100 years old 
or more.  The questions is, is this true or are there other 
mechanisms for natural clearings to occur in forests and if so 
what are they.

Re: DO clearings occur naturally in forests