- PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Within 100 miles of the megalopolises of New York, Philadelphia
and Boston, a great regreening is underway.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- "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."
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- But in the 20th century, lumber companies
moved west and environmentalists pressed for better government control
of the wilderness. In return, the forests have recovered. Trees are growing
to maturity and underbrush is lush. Animals are back.
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- "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."
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- In 1994, ornithologists recorded the
first blackpoll warbler nest in Pennsylvania; today there are 10 nesting
males in Wyoming County.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- "As there is a resurgence, there
is also a threat," said John Gilroy, a Vermont environmental lawyer
who advises regional save-the-forest campaigns.
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- "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."
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