North America was inhabited for thousands of years by the time Europeans arrived and land tended to be managed as a matter of living on it. The thick forests ea

North America was inhabited for thousands of years by the time Europeans arrived and land tended to be managed as a matter of living on it. The thick forests early European colonists encountered were the result of massive depopulation of people and not 'natural' in that sense. The idea of setting aside land for unmanaged old-growth forests is a modern one and we're likely seeing it again for the first time since early colonial times; back then it was inadvertent. http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~alcoze/for398/class/pristinemyth.html http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~alcoze/for398/class/pristinemyth.htm...