More Trees (extra credit)

The presentation by Professor Dyer was surprisingly interesting. He spoke on the history of deciduous trees in eastern America over that past couple hundred years. He used a combination of informative slides and many informative graphs. I learned how that pre-colonization, most of the eastern half of our country was trees while today it is down to about 40%.

Professor Dyer also talked about the areas of different types of trees and how the dominant tree in certain areas has changed over the decades. He showed both a map by a university of Cincinnati from almost a hundred years ago and then one that he himself came up with that showed the dispersal of dominant trues over the eastern united states. It was interesting to see how dominant trees can change over such a relatively short time. It's true that he mentioned deforestation, but at least I would have thought that the trees that were prominent before would return as such, but instead it was the fast growing trees that have taken over. Professor Dyer said it was too early to know the true implications of this, but it seems that the forests of eastern America are changed for good.