[immadashell]

Evidently, we are pretty good about counting the number of trees cut down. Are we also capable of determining the number of new trees planted or of those which grew naturally from fallen seeds, nuts or fruit?
A statistic I have heard quoted (but have not verified) is that 80 years ago my state was 25% forested and today is 75% tree covered.

[wbill]

I used to chuckle at my dad...when I was a kid we'd go fishing at his old stomping grounds and he occasionally had difficulty finding landmarks. Everything had gotten completely overgrown, in a generation's time. Old, unused roads, trails, abandoned farmhouses, fields .... all reclaimed by nature.

Then, I took WBill Jr to do the same thing this summer.

Exactly the same problem. Landmarks that I'd used as a kid .... just weren't there anymore. And this is in the Northeast, hardly a dense tropical rainforest. I'd imagine that in warm climates, the process moves much faster.

Mother Nature will always get back what's taken from her.

[woodbutcher1963]

I am in NH. The statistic I have read was that NH was 20% forested and 80% cleared around 1880. A hundred years later it had flipped to 80% forested and 20% cleared. All around this area you will find stone walls that separated farmers fields now running through forests that have trees 2-3’ in diameter. This second, third, forth(who knows) growth timber all grew back after the smart farmers moved to Iowa, Indiana and Ohio the Kings Pine stopped being cut for His Majesties Navy.

Imagine the yearly growth in the tropics. That is why every once in awhile someone down in the Yucatan finds some old Mayan Temple that is completely covered with jungle.