Case Example: New England Restoration

The document analyzes the restoration of approximately 4 million hectares of forest in New England between 1880 and 2000, which occurred largely through the passive abandonment of agricultural land. It identifies market shifts toward Midwestern agriculture and the subsequent decline of small-scale regional farming as primary drivers. While ecological conditions and policy measures like the Weeks Act of 1911 supported this recovery, the report warns that current trends are reversing due to residential development, population growth, and ecological pressures such as deer browsing.

• Between 1880 and 2000, approximately 4 million hectares of land in New England underwent restoration, primarily through passive restoration processes.
• The primary driver for forest restoration was a shift in market conditions that made New England's small-scale farming unable to compete with industrial agriculture in the U.S. Midwest, leading to widespread land abandonment.
• Ecological conditions facilitated rapid natural regeneration, with some tree species recolonizing landscapes within 10 years, aided by an abundance of seeds and animal dispersers.
• The New England Forestry Foundation has quantified the economic and environmental benefits of the region's forests, including $6 billion in avoided water treatment costs, $5 billion in recreation benefits, and the sequestration of 3.5 million metric tons of carbon.
• Policy interventions, specifically the Weeks Act of 1911, supported restoration by authorizing the creation of national forests such as the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont and the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire and Maine.
• Current forest regeneration trends are reversing as forest cover declines in every New England state due to population growth and the conversion of land for residential and industrial use.
• Modern ecological challenges, including heavy browsing by deer and the impact of the hemlock woolly adelgid, threaten the sustainability and composition of the restored forests.

APA

BUCKINGHAM, K. (n.d.). Case Example: New England Restoration. World Resources Institute. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/WRI_Restoration_Diagnostic_Case_Example_NewEngland_1.pdf

Chicago

BUCKINGHAM, KATHLEEN. Case Example: New England Restoration. World Resources Institute, n.d. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/WRI_Restoration_Diagnostic_Case_Example_NewEngland_1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=BUCKINGHAM |first1=KATHLEEN |title=Case Example: New England Restoration |publisher=World Resources Institute |url=https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/WRI_Restoration_Diagnostic_Case_Example_NewEngland_1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{buckinghamndcase, author = {BUCKINGHAM, KATHLEEN}, title = {{Case Example: New England Restoration}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/WRI_Restoration_Diagnostic_Case_Example_NewEngland_1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }