Our nation's forests are growing

A press release from the Abundant Forests Alliance pointed me towards the USDA Forest Service's web page for their Resources Planning Act. Specially, it noted a recently released document concerning changes in America's forests (growth, removal, mortality). The document reveals that America's forests are still growing. Some key findings were:

• There are 750 million acres of forestland in the U.S. today, about the same as in 1907.
• 11 states had increases of over 25 percent over the last century, and nine had increases of over 30 percent.
• Overall, forestland in the northern U.S. has increased by almost 30 percent.

These findings match the Society of American Foresters 2007 State of America's Forests report.

All in all, this is encouraging news. It means that, as a country, landowners are working to keep our nation covered in forests. Of course, we know that we will have to keep working towards goals that let landowners maintain this land, such as a fair tax policy, freedom to practice timber farming (including control burning), a healthy economic environment for loggers and truckers, and a thriving forest products industry.