After reading about how forests in the United States have changed since European settlement, I was curious about how that image would look from above. While looking for some sort of image that might demonstrate the trends Stirba discussed I found this image from NASA that shows exactly what Stirba was talking about. Based on satellite data, NASA has noticed as well that forests are regenerating and it is different growth. They have been able to observe this regenerative growth is different than what there was before as the forests have different albedos (reflectiveness of forests changed- different growth, lighter colored, different reflectivity) than they did in 1650.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/AncientForest/ancient_forest6.php