Assignment Task: Why is it that although most all of the trees in Pennsylvania were gone by the early 1900s, they have since regrown?
A. The trees were cut down to clear land for farming, but more recently, the farming has declined since we are eating less, and so the forests have been able to regrow.
B. Disease wiped out the old forests, but new disease-resistant trees have since been planted.
Prehistoric hunter-gatherers cut down trees really rapidly to make clubs for hunting, deforesting large areas, but trees grew back after people switched to farming.
C. Attitudes towards trees have changed; previously, people were afraid of forests, but more recently, we see forests as good things, so they have been allowed to regrow.
D. Many of the trees were cut down for fuel to power iron furnaces; more recently, in the USA fossil fuels have replaced trees, and we have allowed trees to grow back.