Vanishing Forestland

More evidence of unrelenting suburban sprawl: North Carolina forestland is vanishing almost twice as fast as forestry experts expected, with more than 1-million acres absorbed through development since 1990.

Forests cover more than 18.3 million acres in North Carolina, roughly 59 percent of the state’s land --- five-percent less than in 1990.

This represents the least amount of forest acreage since the 1930’s, when forestland was cleared for agriculture. But don’t expect this land to revert to forestland as it did in the 1930’s, experts say. Once forestland is converted into subdivisions, shopping centers and offices, it stays that way.

Posted by Jim Langcuster at March 26, 2004 09:29 AM | TrackBack