Development Devouring N. Carolina Forests At Twice Expected Pace

[hatrack]

North Carolina forestland is disappearing nearly twice as fast as expected, with more than a million acres swallowed by development since 1990.

The data comes from U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service survey that examined forest growth, harvests and ownership between 1990 and 2002. Twenty-one Western North Carolina counties lost 179,000 acres, about 18 percent of available timberland, report author Mark Brown said.

EDIT

"We are concerned about the loss of timberland to urban development and other uses," said Dan Smith, deputy state forester with the N.C. Division of Forest Resources. "With our population growth, that trend is likely to continue. It's more important now than ever to manage private lands to sustain the state's forests." Wake County lost 78,964 acres of timberland from 1990 to 2002, the most of any county in the state.

A 1999 survey of forestland throughout the South projected a decline throughout the state for the next 40 years. But it projected the harvest rates would not exceed growth rates until 2025. That has already occurred. "We are losing timberland at an accelerating rate, and we need to be careful about that," said Bob Abt, a forest economist at N.C. State University who participated in the earlier survey. "You can think of Interstate 85 as a development corridor, and it goes right through the Piedmont. You can follow that trend all the way to Atlanta along I-85."

EDIT

http://cgi.citizen-times.com/cgi-bin/story/regional/52332

[Pale_Rider]

1. Be prepared for urban flooding ...

... as forests are paved over and streams are stretched beyond capacity.

[HFishbine]

2. Google has failed me

Anybody know how to get to the report directly? I'd particularly like to research my NC county.

[amazona]

6. here's the 1990 report

http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/rb/rb_se118.pdf

It isn't clear to me that they've put the latest report online yet. Maybe if they are just announcing results, they have not had a chance and we can check again in a few days.

[HFishbine]

7. Thanks!

I appreciate it.

[zbdent]

3. How much longer before North Carolina's forests

are all on the signs which tell you which street you are on?

[hatrack]

4. "Oak Glen" and "Maple Street" come readily to mind

Unless, of course, you live on "Forest Lane".

[amazona]

5. it was distressing to visit there

I think if people just stay there, they get used to it and don't realize, but when I returned there after a decade away, it was extremely upsetting. Bird life a fraction of what it used to be. And what over-development isn't getting the bark beetles will. :-(