The forests in the Northeast belonged to the King and he had them cut and carried off wholesale. The locals were paid to cut and ship them and then left to farm the cleared land.
Trouble is the hilly, rockey, NE was ok for pasture but almost impossible to grow profitable crops. The ones that stayed had dairy farms and several acres of garden to feed the family. The ones that wanted to grow grains went west.
When firewood went out of vogue, the forests came back.
