ReWilding

​My most recent idea that I am excited about is returning the land of my property to the wild. To me that means as it was before Europeans came to this continent. 

We know that before it was deforested the land around here was covered with extremely large trees. That’s obvious. What I’m thinking of now though is not only that, but what was it like on the forest floor? 

I have heard stories of midwives going into the woods to find the medicinal herbs that they were looking for. I have a relative in my own ancestry known as Granny Betsy, who did just that on horseback. It must’ve been abundant with herbs! There are still a few herbs present. I am sure that as soon as the trees were cut down, the bright sunlight had a very tragic effect on all of the shade loving plants at the time. And what we have now is a fraction of the botanicals living in the wild that would’ve been there. So yes, I want to know as accurately as possible, what would the forest floor have looked like before deforestation. 

Not just the plant life either, when I think back to what it would’ve been like, I think of the soil. It must’ve been rich with probiotics and a world of micro nutrients!
Can we achieve this again?
In our lifetime? 

I’d like to try.