# Europe's Forests, 1400–2025

> Interactive animated map on Moving Polygons by chrisjager, 1400 – 2025: 10 keyframes, 8 layers, 0 events.

- Map: https://www.movingpolygons.com/map/chrisjager/europes-forests-14002025
- Embed: `<iframe src="https://www.movingpolygons.com/embed/chrisjager/europes-forests-14002025" width="800" height="600" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>`
- Last updated: 2026-10-23

## 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.

## Timeline

The map animates between these keyframes.

| 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

| Layer | First shown | Last keyframe |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Forest already gone before 1400 | 1400 | 1400 |
| Forest lost since 1400 (shows as it is cleared) | 1400 | 1400 |
| Boreal conifer: Scots pine & Norway spruce | 1400 | 2025 |
| Mixed: pine, spruce, oak, lime, birch | 1400 | 2025 |
| Broadleaf ('loofbos'): oak, beech, hornbeam | 1400 | 2025 |
| Mountain conifer: fir, spruce, larch | 1400 | 2025 |
| Mediterranean: holm & cork oak, Aleppo pine | 1400 | 2025 |
| Planted conifers: spruce, Sitka, pine | 1400 | 2025 |