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Comment by stakkur | Hacker News Reader

Several years ago, I was curious about how 'bare' England looked compared to my country (the US is ~36% forested). It turns out that <10% of England is forested. The long history of deforestation in England is even worse than it is in the US.

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The US has deforested far more land than is present in all of England. Look at the satellite map of the US and see huge swaths of uninterrupted farmland larger than entire European countries Most of the old growth forests in the US are long gone. A lot of what remains is new growth of >100 yrs old lacking the original biodiversity.

I’m not sure that’s fair, given the relative density of the two. The US is truly enormous, especially compared to any European country.

I think England has a much longer history of habitation, and so it's understandable that deforestation is more extensive (thousands of years vs. hundreds). Here's an article I like about that process in England: https://aeon.co/essays/who-chopped-down-britains-ancient-for...

There are a lot of parallels in the US process of deforestation, except as you say on a much different scale. The US has lost ~75% of its virgin forests just since 1600.

For reference, less than half the population of London - or about 80% of the population of Scotland - would give England the same population density as the US.

Britania ruled the waves with a wooden navy.

There was a mini ice age after the first time they cut down all the trees in northern Europe.

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