Reaching a forest land per capita milestone in the United States.
Authors:
Woodall, C.W. Miles, P.D. USDA, FS
Source:
Environmentalist. 2008 Sept., v. 28, no. 3, p. 315-317.
NALT Subjects:
forests land use land use change population growth sustainable forestry United States
Issue Date:
Sep-2008
Abstract:
During April 2007, forest land per capita in the United States dropped below 1 ha. This is the result of a rather static area of forest land in the United States for the past 100 years combined with population growth. The US now joins the ranks of most countries (77%) having forest land per capita below 1 ha. The combination of an increasing human population with stable or increasing per capita natural resource utilization may place even more demand on resources derived from forest land in the future. The forest land per capita should be expected to continue its downward trend unless substantive demographic, resource utilization, and land-use changes occur.