New England Abandoned 12 Million Acres of Farmland — What Grew Back Changed Everything

🌿 Rewild Your Backyard — Field Guide → https://nature-recode-vault.pages.dev In 1850, 80 percent of New England was cleared farmland. Today, 80 percent is forest. Nobody replanted it. No government programme funded it. The farms were simply abandoned — and 12 million acres of wilderness grew back over the stone walls. Black bears are in forests that didn't exist when their great-grandparents were shot. This is how it happened. SOURCES: Harvard Forest / David Foster — 'Wildlands and Woodlands', New England forest history, aerial photographs harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu Tom Wessels 'Reading the Forested Landscape' — stone walls, old apple trees, stone walls as evidence of farms USDA Forest Service — New England forest cover statistics, species return data Connecticut Forest & Park Association — forest cover progression data NOAA / National Hurricane Center — Great New England Hurricane 1938, 600 million board feet #NewEngland #Reforestation #Rewilding