One of the many things that I have loved continuously since I was little has been maps. I love maps of any kind ranging from road maps to topographical maps to nautical maps (not as much). It could be that part of my love for maps is intertwined with my love of traveling. Ever since I was little, I used to love to track our trips on a map as we were driving. The spacial relationship between where we were in the larger world to how it tracked on a piece of paper was fascinating to me. At times is was definitely discouraging if we were driving through a large state like Virginia and it would seem to take forever to travel just an inch on the map, but it was still fun. One of the parts I loved was seeing what was around us that we couldn't see from the road, the towns or major cities that we would skirt in an effort to avoid traffic, or just a mountain range that we would be driving by that only a portion of which could be seen from the car. Whatever piqued my interest in maps when I was little carried on into my years as an adult. Even now, with the advent of GPS, smart phones, and cars that tell you where to go, I prefer my paper map (or at least a map without directions on my phone). I prefer to track where I am headed on a map and then just go. I can find the circuitous routes if I want, the ones that meander through the back country or I can find the most direct route possible. In either case, I am in control of where I am going and don't have a phantom navigator mechanically telling me where to turn or when I missed a turn. That inevitably leads to greater frustration for me. That love of maps transfers to my time off the roads and in the woods as well. I remember a few years ago I was planning to hike the Quinnipiac Trail in Connecticut, about 26 miles in all, and before I ventured out, I had a topographical map printed of the trail area just so I could see exactly where I was going and track my progress. It was like I was a little kid again. These days, with technology, I still love to look at maps, even online, which is what brings me to my topic for today, forest maps. As I was perusing the New York Times online, I decided to check out their series on climate change to see if there was anything new there. While there were a few good articles, I feel that for me to talk about them would be like beating a dead horse, pointless.
I did, however, find a somewhat interactive world map on forests and their coverage in different countries. Most of us know about the integral part that forests play in absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and I thought it was quite interesting to see the current forests as they are, how much has been lost over the past decade or so, and what the ancient forests of 8000 years ago looked like. For those of you who are now interested to see for yourself, here is the link. One thing that was extremely fascinating to me, which I didn't think would be the case, was to see how forested New England currently is. Most of the forests were wiped out for farming in the 17 and 1800's, however, after the farmland was abandoned, the forests grew back and now in some areas exceed the density of the forests as they were a few hundred years ago. Out of all the United States, the New England area (which includes New York and parts of Pennsylvania for forests) is now the most heavily forested area in the United States and one of the most integral areas for carbon absorption. For me, I always thought of the West coast being more heavily forested, especially in the mountain regions, yet compared to what the East Coast has to offer, the West pales in comparison. The only difference may be that the West Coast still has some untouched forests whereas the entire Northeast region of the United States is fractured forests meaning that it is interrupted in many areas by roads and small towns. Regardless, I think that the heavily forested Northeast region is one of the major factors in my never wanting to move out of the region. The forests in the Northeast region extend north into a good portion of Canada creating what I would deem as the third heavily forested region in the world after South America and the rain forests there and the tropical rain forests in central Africa. It appears that to really experience untouched forests that aren't fragmented, one has to travel to either of these two regions to see them. Outside of South America and Africa, virgin forests are hard to come by. There is a depressing side to the map on forests and that is to see how much forest we have lost just over the last decade or so. There is still the issue of excessive logging and deforestation and that is unlikely to change drastically anytime soon. We can hope for the alternative, but with populations increasing and building materials still necessary, logging will continue for quite some time.
In any case, my love for maps continues, in any way, shape, or form. The one aspect of technology and maps that I absolutely love is that at any point, I can pull out my phone and look at maps, anywhere, anytime. I love to find roads that I have never been on and see if I can somehow get myself onto those roads in the course of my travels. That is the other part I love about New England; almost any road you travel on will lead you somewhere. While there are a good number of dead ends, they are outnumbered greatly by little meandering roads that look as if they lead nowhere, yet can take you on a journey that you will never forget. There are not that many gated communities or housing developments as compared to other parts of the country and a dirt road is never far away, if only you know where to look. I just wish they identified those dirt roads on maps so I can find them and travel them. But beyond simply maps on the phone, there are other avenues that I enjoy following. If I am really ambitious, I pull up Google Earth and see any part of the world. There is something about Google Earth that is extremely appealing to me. I love to pull up a section of the Earth that I have traveled to and see if I can track where I have been from satellite images. It is much harder than you think, yet it is possible. There are great differences when it comes to looking at a road map on paper versus satellite images pieced together to form what is essentially a much larger map of the Earth as it is. But in any case, I just mainly just wanted to share the interactive map on the New York Times today for any other map lovers out there. If anyone comes across any other cool maps, feel free to share them as I will most likely enjoy looking at them!
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