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NutmegYankee

(16,303 posts)
Sun Jul 6, 2014, 09:41 PM Jul 2014

'The Northeast Wants To Be A Forest'

In the years just before the Civil War, the Connecticut landscape was radically different than it is today.

It was an open, agrarian landscape, a patchwork of farms with few mature trees. A farm woodlot often was little more than a cluster of young, spindly trees.

Those mid-century years were years of enormous change, however, even if they were but a hint of what was to become a complete make-over of the Connecticut landscape.

With a boom in farming in states to the west like Ohio, where many Connecticut farmers resettled in the 19th Century, and the emergence of railroads to move crops quickly over long distances, agriculture slowly declined in Connecticut and continued to do so into the 21st century. Cropland and pastures were abandoned. Trees sprouted in the old fields.

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/courant-250/moments-in-history/hc-250-connecticut-landscape-p2-20140706,0,1318533.story

And now we are the #1 for urban forest.

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freshwest

(53,661 posts)
1. Wish our forests were doing so well. Things have deteriorated with population and other factors.
Sun Jul 6, 2014, 10:24 PM
Jul 2014

We've an invasion of video game landscapers who want nature to match.

Sad turn of events, the former urban generation really valued native plants and trees.

.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
2. Pests, disease and a horrible winter have taken a toll in Michigan
Sun Jul 6, 2014, 10:46 PM
Jul 2014

which WAS a forest for a long time...

much of the land was cultivated by the American Indians, but when diseases and warfare wiped them out, a lot of the continents reverted to forest.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
8. Fascinating!
Tue Jul 8, 2014, 06:58 AM
Jul 2014

This was 50+ years before our family got to US, let alone Michigan, so I had no knowledge...

Response to NutmegYankee (Original post)

 

lululu

(301 posts)
5. RI is doing pretty well
Mon Jul 7, 2014, 12:47 PM
Jul 2014

Fly over it and darn near the whole state looks like a forest, except the beaches.

OF course, in a few decades most of it will be underwater.

mackerel

(4,412 posts)
7. If you hadn't said it was Connecticut I would have thought Northern California, Oregon or Washington
Mon Jul 7, 2014, 11:46 PM
Jul 2014

Maybe Connecticut goes on my list.

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