[at-l] Wood stoves: a threat to the trail?

[rafeb@adelphia.net (rafeb@adelphia.net)]

On 24 Feb 2002 at 21:39, David wrote:

> The last time I read about the eastern seabord forests, we have more land
> covered with forest today than we had in 1776.


This is an oft-cited statistic, but only tells part of the story.

In 1776, trees had been felled in huge numbers to build 
ships, homes and barrels, and to fuel fires, of course. 
Land had been cleared for agriculture.

Most of these farms are history now, so much of the acreage 
for those has been reforested.  Which is why you see 
stone fences in the woods in much of New England.

But keep in mind that this new growth is but a mere 
shadow of what was here when Europeans first arrived 
on these shores.  The trees now are rarely even 100 
years old, and these "recovered" forests have nowhere 
near the biological diversity of their ancestors.  Chestnut 
trees are gone, many others nearly gone or threatened.

A couple of years back the Boston Globe reported a 
surprise finding of some old-growth trees in western 
Massachusetts.  The photo showed them to be stunted, 
gnarly little trees -- I forget what species.  Clearly what 
"saved" them was the fact that they had no commercial 
potential, and just weren't worth cutting down and 
hauling away, not even for cordwood.


rafe b.
aka terrapin