Let's Get the Story Straight on the State of North American Forests and Deforestation

Deforestation means the permanent or long-term conversion of forest lands to other land uses due to urban expansion, industrial development, resource extraction or agricultural development. Despite what many people think, harvesting trees for wood and paper production in a sustainable manner does not cause deforestation.

Deforestation is different from loss of forest cover which includes deforested areas but is also caused by harvesting, fire, insects and disease. These are not permanent losses. The forest will return given time, good growing conditions and often a helping hand through planting trees.

The area occupied by forests in Canada (about 350 million ha*) has remained stable over the last two decades(i) while in the United States it increased by 3 percent over the last 60 years, from about 300 to 310 million ha between 1997 and 2012(ii).

The volume of growing stock on U.S. timberland (which takes into account the number of trees and their size) has increased by 58 percent(iii) over the last six decades and by 16 percent between 1997 and 2012. In Canada, the actual harvest has been 44 percent of annual growth.(vi)

However, across the United States, some regions lose more forests than they gain. A couple of examples:

1. Development of cropland, pasture and urban areas in the Southeast and South Central Regions between 1907 and 1997 caused roughly 400,000 ha in forest losses per year.(v) These losses were balanced by large additions of new forest land in Northern regions primarily from agriculture.
2. Between 1990 and 2010, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island, lost a total of 133,000 ha of forest area from the construction of suburban houses, vacation homes, golf courses and commercial development.(vi) The forest area increase for the Northeast region as a whole was thanks to reforestation of 155,000 ha of abandoned agricultural areas in New York State.

Assuming current urban growth continues, the expansion of cities in the United States between 2000 and 2050 is projected to reduce forest areas by about 11,830,000 ha.(vii)