Guarding the forests
The regeneration of the region’s forests over the last 150 years is an environmental gift that New Englanders shouldn’t squander with thoughtless development, the director of the Harvard Forest said Wednesday in a talk at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. David Foster, director since 1990, said that New England forests are somewhat unusual in a world of increasing deforestation, in that they regenerated on their own during the last 150 years. The regrowth happened across the region as New Englanders quit their farms for cities and industrial jobs. Today, Foster said, New England is the nation’s most heavily forested, at 82 percent coverage. “It is very difficult to keep trees out of the New England landscape and they marched right back and reclaimed the land,” Foster said. “History has provided New England with a remarkable gift.” People wrongly assume that the forests are safe and that the landscape will remain the same...