About this map
Where Europe's forests stood around 1400, where they were cleared, and what grew back. Colours show forest type; rust shows land that was forest in 1400 and has since been cleared, pale wool shows land whose natural forest was already gone before 1400. This is a reconstruction, not a survey: national forest-cover trajectories (national forest histories; Kaplan, Krumhardt & Zimmermann 2009, 'The prehistoric and preindustrial deforestation of Europe', QSR 28; FAO / Forest Europe statistics for recent decades) are placed on a 0.25° grid by a rule that keeps forest longest in mountains, known forest massifs and land far from historic cities. Forest types are potential natural vegetation; 'planted conifers' marks regrowth and conversion since 1900 in countries where plantations dominate. Treat patterns as indicative, especially before 1800.
Text version: https://www.movingpolygons.com/map/chrisjager/europes-forests-14002025.md
Timeline
| Date | What the map shows |
|---|---|
| 1400 | 1400 · Forests regrow after the Black Death |
| 1500 | 1500 · Population recovers; the axe returns |
| 1600 | 1600 · Ships, charcoal, glass and iron |
| 1700 | 1700 · Navies and ironworks strip the woods |
| 1800 | 1800 · Wood famine: Denmark down to 2–3 % |
| 1850 | 1850 · France just past its forest low |
| 1900 | 1900 · Ireland ~1 %, Britain under 5 % |
| 1950 | 1950 · Coal and state planting turn the tide |
| 2000 | 2000 · Farms abandoned, forests return |
| 2025 | 2025 · Forests back — much of it planted |
Layers
Forest already gone before 1400 · Forest lost since 1400 (shows as it is cleared) · Boreal conifer: Scots pine & Norway spruce · Mixed: pine, spruce, oak, lime, birch · Broadleaf ('loofbos'): oak, beech, hornbeam · Mountain conifer: fir, spruce, larch · Mediterranean: holm & cork oak, Aleppo pine · Planted conifers: spruce, Sitka, pine