New England is more forested now than it has been in at least 100 years, possibly since before the Civil War. Between the industrial revolution and the shift o

New England is more forested now than it has been in at least 100 years, possibly since before the Civil War. Between the industrial revolution and the shift of agriculture westward to the Mississippi and beyond, due to railroads, industrial food processing and refrigeration, the vast majority of the land that used to be cleared for farming has grown back up as woods.