Visualizing Environmental Science

332 CHAPTER 13 Land Resources

are under economic pressure to subdivide the land and

develop tracts for housing or shopping malls, as they seek

ways to recoup their high property taxes. Projected con-

version of forests to agricultural, urban, and suburban

lands over the next 40 years will have the greatest potential

impact in the South, where more than 85 percent of for-

est is privately owned and logging is largely unregulated.

U.S. National Forests According to the USFS, the

United States has 155 national forests encompassing

78 million hectares (193 million acres) of land, mostly

in Alaska and western states. The USFS manages most

national forests, and the BLM oversees the remainder.

National forests have been established to provide U.S.

citizens with the maximum benefits of natural resources

such as fish, wildlife, and timber. Multiple uses include

timber harvesting; mining; livestock foraging; hunting,

fishing, and other forms of outdoor recreation; water

resources and watershed protection; and habitat for

fishes and wildlife. Recreation, which increased dra-

matically in national forests during the 1990s and early

2000s, ranges from camping at designated campsites

to backpacking in the wilderness. Visitors to national

forests swim, boat, picnic, and observe nature. With so

many possible uses of national forests, conflicts inevi-

tably arise, particularly between timber interests and

those who wish to preserve the trees for other purposes.

Road building is a particularly contentious issue

in national forests, in part because the USFS builds

taxpayer-funded roads to allow private logging companies

access to forests to remove timber. (See the Case Study at

the end of the chapter for an example.) Road building

in national forests is environmentally destructive when

improper construction accelerates soil erosion and mud-

slides (particularly on steep terrain) and causes water pol-

lution in streams. Biologists are concerned that the many

roads that are built fragment wildlife habitat and provide

entries for disease organisms and invasive species.

1. What is sustainable forestry?


2. What is deforestation? What are four
   important causes of tropical deforestation?


3. Why does the fact that U.S. national forests have
   been created for multiple uses result in both
   positive and negative outcomes? Give examples.

Forests in the United States

In recent years, most temperate forests in the Rocky
Mountains, Great Lakes region, and New England
and other eastern states have been holding steady or
even expanding. In Vermont, the amount of land cov-
ered by forests increased from 35 percent in 1850 to
75 percent in 2010. Expanding forests are the result
of secondary succession on abandoned farms (see Fig-
ure 6.21), the commercial planting of tree plantations
on both private and public lands, and government pro-
tection. Although these second- and third-growth forests
generally don’t have the biological diversity of virgin
stands, many organisms have successfully become rees-
tablished in the regenerated areas. The good news about
these returning forests is tempered, however, by the fact
that we are contributing to deforestation elsewhere by
importing more timber to meet the increased demand
for lumber, paper, and other wood products; we also
import beef raised on former forest lands.
Slightly less than one-half of U.S. forests are privately
owned (Figure 13.7); three-fourths of these private lands
are in the Northeast and Midwest. Many private owners

Forest ownership in the United States
Uʈ}ÕÀiʣΰÇÊ

Much U.S. forest is privately owned.

Federal

government

33%

Corporations
governmentState 18%
9%
Local government
1%

Private individuals

39%

Courte

sy of the U.

S. Fore

st S

ervice (2009).

Interpreting Data

What is the total percentage

of forest owned by all types

of government?