New Hampshire is currently the second most forested state in the country, trailing only Maine, with 78.4% forest cover,  That’s pretty cool.  However, this probably comes as no surprise to anyone who lives here; driving through most areas in New Hampshire is a matter of weaving through woods.  On clear, summer days, the state seems to light up with green.

When I first moved to New Hampshire, what immediately struck me and left a powerful lasting impression was the density and vastness of its forests.  Given the introspective atmosphere that these woods create, it is no wonder that so many writers and painters are from or choose to settle here.  New Hampshire’s forests are very much a part of its identity.  The number of tourists who travel here to witness the forests’ own colorful masterpieces during fall speak to this truth.  But I am willing to bet that anyone reading this article has already realized as much.

In the late 1700s, the colonization of New England led to the deforestation of sweeping amounts of land for farming.  This continued throughout most of the nineteenth century, when the percentage of New Hampshire’s forest cover dropped below 50%.  It’s hard to imagine today’s New Hampshire that barren.

Several factors led to the dramatic comeback of New England’s forests.  For one, the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 created a market for Midwestern agriculture, leading many more people to settle further west and reducing the amount of farming taking place in New England.  Large mill-powered factories contributed by reducing farming’s profitability.  Over time, this decline in farming led to the natural reforestation of the untouched land.  The old stone walls throughout New England used to mark farmland boundaries.  Now most of them are swallowed up by the vast amounts of relatively young forests.

Unfortunately, the forests of New Hampshire and the rest of New England are shrinking once again, this time due to more permanent deforestation, according to an important report recently released by Wildlands & Woodlands.

The report names sprawling residential and commercial development as a leading cause of this recent decline.  Also contributing are adverse forest practices such as clear-cutting and “liquidation” foresting, where land is stripped of its lumber and then parceled off and sold as subdivisions.  Because so many of these forests are still young, the effects can be especially damaging, and the trees are often harvested well before they reach their full productive potential.  Another culprit is increased parcelization.  Over the years, land tracts have become smaller and the number of landowners has increased.  This has led to what Wildlands & Woodlands calls “legal fragmentation.”  Parcelization makes properly managing forests much more difficult, increases the risk of deforestation, and reduces public access to forests.

Despite the doom and gloom, we can reverse the reversal of New England forest growth.  For example, better planning the development of new homes and commercial buildings would be an admirable start.  We would be wise to emphasize better forest practices such as selective logging, through which specialists determine which trees have reached their productive potential and can be cut down in a way that can actually benefit the forest as a whole through an attempt to mimic the natural process.

Wildlands & Woodlands calls for New England to begin protecting much more of its forests to ensure that its forest cover does not drop below 70%.  This may seem radical to some, but bear in mind that this leaves room for a doubling of the development that currently exists.

It would be regrettable if we let any opportunity to preserve our recovered forests slip away.  Aesthetics, atmosphere, recreation and tourism aside, forests create and preserve a great amount of biodiversity.  They also aid in the recharging of groundwater reservoirs.  And of course it would be negligent of me to forego mentioning that by sequestering carbon dioxide, forests can help slow down global warming.  The United States as a whole is losing its forests at a rate greater than that of even Brazil between 2000 and 2005, and North America has the world’s highest rate of deforestation.  The woods around us are a fundamental component of New England’s identity and its ecosystem; we should do anything we can to set an example and ensure that these forests are here to stay.  As the proverb goes, “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the next best time is now.”