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There used to be worms before the ice. They're just repopulating. By extension, none of the trees are native either. The natural state of the higher latitudes was mud and rock 10000 years ago.

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North America did not have an extensive earthworm ecology like Eurasia even though they had some worms. They are an invasive animal[0] brought from Europe that creates problems for the many North American plants and ecosystems not adapted to the pervasive effects of such worms. The worms you find in soil are largely non-native.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_earthworms_of_North_A...

That is the spiel from academics on the publish or perish treadmill. Fossil burrows of the same form as the European worms exist in North America. Worms were also maintained to the south of the ice cover so it is disingenuous to declare that all North American worms are nonnative.

> it is disingenuous to declare that all North American worms are nonnative.

Nobody made that claim. That's the strawman you chose to argue against instead.

Pressure to publish = dismiss any academic claim without evidence? No

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