European settlers were soon busy clearing eastern deciduous forests. Forests in Washington began to be seriously tackled by the late 1800s. Massive cutting occurred in the 1970s and 1980s before the drastic Spotted Owl decline caused a slowdown in logging. Currently, eastern N. American forests are growing back. The greatest cutting now occurs in tropical and subtropical forests and the once-unprofitable boreal forests.
Deforestation does more than remove habitat.
It increases the perimeter to interior ratio of the remaining forest. The forest also represents a large reservoir of fixed carbon. Burning slash and decomposition releases that stored carbon to the atmosphere where it adds to the carbon dioxide concentration. Regrowing forest has a net absorption of carbon dioxide. Some scientists have suggested that increased carbon dioxide will stimulate plant growth and increase the fixed carbon stored in plant material, but many others are skeptical that we can grow our way out of global warming, since all the young biomass eventually gets respired or burned.