When the Trees Came Back: The Great Battle to Save Vermont’s Forests by Robert A. Mello (Vermont Historical Society, 2026) chronicles the recovery of Vermont’s forests, which were 75% deforested by the 1880s due to farming and logging.
The book highlights how advocates, citizens, and lawmakers reversed this environmental disaster, restoring the state to roughly 75% forest coverage today.
Although long recognized as the “Green Mountain State,” Vermont’s hillsides were once nearly completely bare. By the 1880s, unsustainable logging and farming practices had decimated its once-dense forests, with enormous environmental consequences.
When the Trees Came Back tells the story of how a group of dedicated advocates, citizens, and lawmakers turned the tide at the dawn of the 20th century. It explains how their efforts contributed to the remarkable recovery of Vermont’s forests, and provides lessons for protecting our forests in an uncertain future.
“It is so good to have an account of the resurrection of the forests of Vermont,” says Bill McKibben about the book, “one of the fairly few hopeful stories on a planet that’s mostly turned brown in the last century!”
You can read an interview with the author here.
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