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| Science News - December 17, 2001 |
Urban development threatens southern forests
Urban development will consume roughly 15% of southeastern U.S. forests between 1992 and 2040, making sprawl the top forest threat in the region, according to a study from the U.S. Forest Service. With the southern timber industry eclipsing production in the Pacific Northwest, the two-year study responds to concerns that southern forests are being overlogged. Despite inroads from sprawl, the current forest cover of 214 million acres will only decline by about 2% because more farmland will be converted to pine plantations, the study predicts. As pine plantations grow by 67% through 2040, natural forests will continue to decline. The Southern Forest Resource Assessment is available at http://www.srs.fs.fed.us/sustain. —JANET PELLEY |
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