Em 1850, 80% da Nova Inglaterra era roça. Hoje, 80% é floresta

Walk in the woods of New England today and you find walls of stone. The walls run between the trees, in the middle of nowhere. They look very old and strange. But they are simple farm fences.

Here is the reason. In 1850, farmers cut almost all the trees for fields and animals. Only a little forest stays. Then the farmers leave. They go west, because the land there is better for food. So the fields have no work and no cows. And the trees grow back, alone, with no help.

Today about 80 per cent of New England is forest again. The old walls stay inside the new woods. But the story is not over. The region now loses sixty-five acres of forest every day to new houses and roads. Nature gives the forest back. People can take it away again.