Dr. Jim Dyer, did a presentation entitled Looking to the Past to Understand the Present. Dr. Dyer is a biographer - he's interestd in patterns that emerge from human interactions with our physical environment. Int his lecture, he compared the amount of forests that existed in the past with how much there is today. Using historical maps and plots, Dr. Dyer showed how much land was open versus how much land was occupied by forests. The most diverse forests are in the Northeast while Florida's forests have disappeared with the existence of swampland.
Dr. Dyer said that in 1620, a squirrel could jump 1000 miles westward from Atlantic coast without touching the ground. Today, 60% of the amount of woods that existed in 1620 is gone. The US used to be filled with diversity of tree life. Today, the land is dominated by maple trees. However, it's better than just a baron landscape. During the early 1900s, there was a rise in logging and coal mining which left many places deforested. Today though, second growth forests have regrown to reconsume much of that land. While we will likely never return to the vast woods of 1620, a rise in tree life is definitely a plus.
Dr. Dyer's presentation showed that even though we've destructed our land in the past, it's possible for it to grow back. The only implication is that there's less variety. Instead of a wide range of oaks, birches, and others, our forests are largely dominated by maples. The effect of this homogeneity is yet to be seen.
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