Forester Marv Lauritsen has written a definitive report on the Joyce Kilmer called "Ageless Giants: A 400-Year History of Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest". In his book, Lauritsen suggests that there was "substantial disturbance" of the flora on the Little Santeetlah in 1550. Little is known about what happened but the result was a total destruction of mature trees which prepared a "desirable seed bed" for many of the older trees that now exist. Most of the oldest trees are yellow-poplar and Eastern hemlock.
Marv Lauritsen suggests that one of the tulip tree's "greatest assets is the inherent ability to grow like a weed in those infant years and to outgrow most other competing vegetation in the understory struggle for life." Some of the largest Liriodendron tulipifera species in the world live in North Carolina and the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest.
