How do Northeastern forests compare with those a settler might have encountered 400 years ago? According to a new study by researchers at Harvard Forest and the Smithsonian, there are stark contrasts between pre-colonial forests and those of today.
“Almost all of the native species that were there 400 years ago, are still there today,” says Jonathan Thompson, a senior ecologist who led the research. “The big exception there is the Chestnut tree. But by and large, the same species are present now that were present then just in different abundances and they have different spacial distributions.”
Thompson and colleagues analyzed forests stretching across a 9-state area, from Pennsylvania to Maine. They compared modern tree records to some of the region’s earliest colonial records, dating back to 1650, when towns marked individual trees to establish property boundaries.
Results showed maples have exploded across the Northeast, increasing by more than 20 percent in most towns. Other tree species have lost ground, with beeches, oaks, and chestnuts showing the steepest declines.
Today about 80 percent of the Northeast is forested. In Thoreau’s time, most of the trees had been cleared for agriculture and timber. Forests have grown back, but they are shaped by the legacy of colonial farming.
“The history of New England and Northeastern forests is really truly remarkable,” says David Foster, the director of the Harvard Forest. “These forests are resilient. They’ve come back from three centuries of intensive use and abuse. And we now have more forest than we’ve had (at) anytime in the last 200 years, and they’re growing and thriving.”
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Photo, taken on October 22, 2008, courtesy of Jason Via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Support for Earth Wise comes from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY.