I've never heard about it, so I doubt it was a common practice. Reforestation sounds like a relatively modern idea to me, but I am in no way an expert. Deforestation became a problem relatively early, that's true, but I imagine that it was mostly dealt by reserving existing woodlands.
Anyway, such rings would be planted much further from the city, than what is mapped by the generator. The lands right behind the city walls were too valuable.
Viewing post in Forestry rings?
I found the reference for forestry rings, and it includes academic references. Offered here more out of joy of knowledge than any expectations. It's a fascinating read.
https://acoup.blog/2019/07/12/collections-the-lonely-city-part-i-the-ideal-city/
Hi, thanks for the link! This is indeed a great post. I've only read this one, but I'm going to check the rest of the blog as well.
Can't help making a couple of notes :)
- No actual forestry rings are mentioned. That green circle on the diagram is just an illustration of the idea that forests would be situated farther from a city than gardens and closer than crop fields. Even on a "featureless plain" forests wouldn't be planted as rings because of roads.
- The author describes pre-modern cities, but in some aspects ancient and medieval cities differ enough to deserve separate treatment. In spite of the amount of maps from Civitates Orbis Terrarum (late XVI c) the author seems more interested in ancient history and some of the his concepts are harder to apply to middle ages. It's not related to forestry rings :)
Cheers!