Northeast Wilderness Returning a Century after Deforestation
8/17/98
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Title: Northeast Wilderness Returning a Century after Deforestation
Source: The Associated Press
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 8/17/98
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Within 100 miles of the megalopolises of New York,
Philadelphia and Boston, a great regreening is underway.
A recent federal study shows that, throughout New England and the mid-
Atlantic, millions of acres of forest have returned nearly a century after
intensive logging and farming devastated the region's wilderness.
And the rebirth of forests has led many animals and birds to flourish
throughout the Northeast, where some species hadn't been seen since the
1800s.
"This is one of the biggest environmental stories of our time, and one of
the only hopeful ones going on anywhere," New York environmentalist Bill
McKibben said. "It shows that if we're willing to back off, nature retains
some resilience and can recover in many ways."
The Northeast has regained 23 million acres of forest since the turn of
the century, according to preliminary figures in a federal study reported
Sunday in The Philadelphia Inquirer. The U.S. Forest Service statistics
show increases in state forest acreage of up to 46 percent since 1907.
The 10 states showing dramatic increases in forest land area are
Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey,
New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Between 1630 and 1907, lumbermen and farmers cleared 300 million acres --
an area the size of 10 Pennsylvanias. By 1908, Pennsylvania's forest cover
was reduced from 95 percent of the land to about 30 percent. In New
England, the remaining forest covered as little as 20 percent of the land
area.
But in the 20th century, lumber companies moved west and environmentalists
pressed forr better government control of the wilderness. In return, the
forests have recovered. Trees are growing to maturity and underbrush is
lush. Animals are back.
"There's been a huge resurgence in wildlife in New England," said Douglas
MacCleery, the Forest Service's assistant director of federal forest
management. "When you look at Thoreau's writings at Walden Pond-- no deer,
no geese, no possums, no wolves, no cougars -- many of the things that he
said there were 'no' of have come back."
In 1994, ornithologists recorded the first blackpoll warbler nest in
Pennsylvania; today there are 10 nesting males in Wyoming County.
Beaver, trapped out of existence in most of the East, were reintroduced in
the Adirondacks and now are thriving in Pennsylvania and much of New
England. Moose are back, and there is talk of reintroducing wolves to
parts of Maine and New York.
But there are continuing challenges. Much of the prime forestland of New
England is up for sale, raising concerns about more logging and
encroaching housing developments.
Fifteen percent of the 26 million-acre Northern Forest, which stretches
from northern Maine to the Adirondacks, is for sale. And 5 percent of the
state of Maine is for sale by one owner, South African paper company Sappi
Ltd.
"As there is a resurgence, there is also a threat," said John Gilroy, a
Vermont environmental lawyer who advises regional save-the-forest
campaigns.
"The threat is that once you have a forest that comes back, there is
pressure to do what you used to do: cut it down."