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Chapter Five Our Forests— Past, Present, and Future I t’s hard to look at a forest today and ozone: a form of oxygen containing three atoms of oxygen in a molecule. Words to Understand picture how it has changed from its original state. Often the trees seem to be so big that we believe that they must have been there forever. It’s also easy to believe that they will be there for many years to come. That is not always the case, however. The forests of North America have changed greatly since the time of the first European settlers. And they are still changing today. paleobotanist: a scientist who studies the plant life of the past by indirect methods. reclamation: restoring land to its former state.

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