Speaking for all Dakotans, I was surprised that there were any woods left east of the Ohio river.
There are more trees in new england now than there were in 1900 - much of the farmland has been abandoned, and reverted to forest.
I live in the middle of six acres of woods here in northern Connecticut. The one or so acre that the house stands on is landscaped, but the rest of our yard is "natural woods", complete with a stone wall built during Colonial times. All eight houses on our street have five + acres of property. My neighbor across the street has over nine acres.
We've seen black bears numerous times in our yard, along with wild turkeys, deer, fox, coyotes, owls, chipmunks and the usual squirrels and birds. We often hear the piercing screams of bobcats also - usually at night, and not too far from the house. The most amazing sighting of a black bear in our yard was in broad daylight last year... the bear was rolling around in the grass like a 250 lb kitten... LOL.
When touring New England for the first time several years ago, my husband's relatives from California were absolutely shocked to learn how much open farm land and forests are here and throughout New England. They expected to see houses "on top of each other", like what you see close to NYC...
There are actually more trees in New Engleand now than there were when the Pilgrims landed.