New England Forestry Foundation Intro

New England Forestry Foundation
East Lyme, Hartland, Pomfret, Woodstock

Welcome to another one of those weird pages that is a category unto itself. The New England Forestry Foundation is… a foundation that cares about forests in New England. They own four forests in Connecticut and they claim that they have trails, so they get a page. You are now reading that page. You are awesome.

I’ve spent some time poking around NEFF’s website and was a bit startled to read this:

Before European settlers arrived, almost 90 percent of New England was forestland. Up until the Civil War, most Americans felt our forests were a resource without end. If we cleared a forest to farm or for its wood, there was another forest just beyond it. Clearcutting (completely clearing a forest area) and slash-and-burn logging (clearcutting followed by burning) were common practices. By 1880 up to 80 percent of land across much of New England had been cleared for pasture, tillage, orchards and buildings.

We’ve greatly improved the situation now at least. Not that it’ll help us when the trees are underwater in a hundred years, but whatever. Let’s find these forests and check them out.