Son of a beech. Climate turbulence doesn't have a known outcome. What is "good" or "bad" depends on whose value system one uses. The long-term changes in a complex ecosystem are often full of unexpected consequences.
Obviously, the timber harvest industry does not like changes in its product flow of the most valuable products. Oftentimes, a change in species mix has some buffering effects on other things, such as insects, pathogens, fire susceptibility. And fire is part of the climate. The fact that beech is expanding is not much different from the expansion of juniper or white fir in the west. Sometimes the expansion of eventual climax species means that some type of population regulation has been altered, such as fire exclusion for example. It is not something I personally worry about. Restoring pre-columbian selective pressures such as frequent light fires would probably work, as differences in fire tolerance often determine which trees "win", but given that there are millions more acres of trees now than at the time of settlement I like watching the dynamics.
