Society's choices: land use changes, forest fragmentation, and conservation.

Abstract

Changing patterns of land use are at the heart of many environmental concerns regarding U.S. forest lands. Of all the human impacts to forests, development is one of the most significant because of the severity and permanency of the change. Concern about the effects of development on America’s forests has risen sharply since the 1990s, when the conversion of forest land to developed uses reached a million acres per year nationwide. Between 1982 and 1997, there was as much private land deforested in the United States as all the forests in the state of Washington, 22 million acres.

Citation

Thompson, Jonathan. 2006. Society''s choices: land use changes, forest fragmentation, and conservation. Science Findings 88. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 5 p