"That is a far higher proportion than what I'm used to seeing."

It all depends on the age of the forest and the species of trees present.  In a beech/maple forest 25% with hollows would be low unless it was a pretty young forest.  At least in my area beeches for instance are 100% hollow by about eight inches diameter chest high.  But, unless you know what to look for you would never guess that to be true even on trees three times that size.  Hollows in ash trees are very common also, but the tree does not live very long after the hollow starts generally.  The ash roots are very rot prone so the tree tips over a few years after it dies, unlike maples that often stand for 20 years while dying and are down to nothing but a trunk and a couple of side branches.  Then the top of the trunk starts breaking and the tree falls over a few years a hunk at a time from the top.

Dick

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