[KoRn]

Very interesting. I’m fortunate to live in one of the darker ‘green’ areas. I love my trees and mountains!

Would love to see what that map would have looked like 300 years ago.

[Rebelbase]

"Would love to see what that map would have looked like 300 years ago."

Probably something like this:

[Verginius Rufus]

At one time a squirrel could travel from tree to tree from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River without ever needing to get down on the ground, according to a character in Peanuts.

That seems to me like a pretty trustworthy source.

[Does so]

Would love to see what that map would have looked like 300 years ago.

Much second- and third-growth is of less-marketable trees. When I stepped out of a lumber store with White Pine under one arm to finsh a 50-year-old house project, I realized I'd just spent $90 for three boards.

White Pine is a valuable tree where its dropped needles will stop erosion. They are being clearcut by the thousands every year. We have flooding problems in some villages now.

In central New Hampshire, the original White Pine has been replaced by the near-worthless Eastern Hemlock, which crowds out everything else through its deep shade. The decreasing numbers of mature Red Pine and Cedar are almost tourist attractions.

I wanted very much to buy an antique hutch made from Chestnut, only because the tree disappeared from the forests. The buyer of my central Florida home dropped an ancient lakeside Bald Cypress, because he didn't know that those trees drop all their leaves every winter—and thought it was dead. :-/