What was an expanding Eastern Forest since the 1910's and 20's has been contracting since the 70's

The farm abandonment and rural flight to the "City" which set the stage for the unprecedented re-growth of the Eastern Forests in the early and mid part of the 20th Century has now peaked. While exceptions do occur in certain locales, declines in forest cover East of the Mississippi since the early 1970's is now the rule rather than the exception.

Our now burgeoning 300 million population is heavily located in the Eastern half of America and anyone who rides the Amtrak trains(as I often do for business) from Boston down through New York, Baltimore, D.C. and Richmond sees one elongated megalopolis across this sector of America. Home building and Industrial Parks are principal factors for our Forests declining in size. Mountaintop coal mining is ripping up our biologically diverse mixed mesophyte forests in the Southern Appalachians..................Increased timber production in Dixie with shorter "crop rotations" have also impacted forest cover in our Eastern woodlands.

Just at the point where the black bear, fisher, marten, moose, bobcat, lynx and coyote have returned (or taken up residence) in the East (in what Thoreau labeled as the "charismatic large animals"), our forests now have new pressures pinching at them with most likely negative consequences for wildlife diversity and expansiveness.

It is estimated that we have lost about 3.70 million hectares of  Eastern forest since 1973..................Forest coverage lessening form 55% of land cover to about 52%..............While it does not at first seem ominous, the problem that we now face is that farm abandonment to woodland is not as easily achieved in 2010 as it was in 1910........This due to the increasing population using the land more intensively, converting open ground to building and other uses associated with population centers. Climate change and increased demand for food and fiber are other factors that might further lessen the ability of our forests to expand and thrive.(which might increase the rate of global warming due to the carbon absorbtion function of the forest being compromised).

Harvard Forests "Wildlands and Woodlands" approach to putting 50% of New England's land acreage into protected reserves and working forests(logging, multi use, etc) is a model that hopefully can be deployed across the East and West to mitigate forest decline and temperature change, improve our water supplies and optimize wildlife diversity across our landscape(go to wildlands and woodlands under my favorite links on this blog).

Like with so many environmental issues that we face, time for intelligent planning and immediate action so as not to foul the nest we all call home.

click here to read Mark Drummond and Thomas Lovelands insightful paper on Land Use Pressure and Forest Cover loss in the Eastern USA