In the early 1800s my former home in Sullivan County NY, the "PAINTERS" as they were called there were in large numbers....However in a few years the then called Market hunters ,wiped them out...along with wolves,deer,Fox turkey,snowshoe rabbits,Pats,timberdodle, and others species...true all over the USA then.Certainly the Buffalo ,were almost taken to near extinction.
Happy to say ,the area has been re introduced with deer,turkeys, since the 1900s,but no more "PAINTERS" I explored all the local small caves ,hoping to find something of them...but no luck...Needed a Tar pit....
A state with a good Conservation program will save species,to include harvesting of them.Overpopulation ,causes disease,and soon a nuisance in suburbia!
Along with the Primeval Forest then ,that's gone.Even the regrowth ,cut,..however in remote areas seems a comeback is happening..only Hundreds of years will show that..The Huge Hemlocks, larch,Beech are no more. the Hemlocks were cut for their bark,tannic acid,the leather of the Civil war....The old traces of the tanneries are still there!My farm, my house , was pre-civil war era. Still is near a place many know..We were 3 miles from the 1969 Bethel Woodstock thing.,I do not think they are extinct ..YET!........thanx for the sad article..... Vin