Question: How many acres of forestland and open space are lost every day in the US?
Answer: 6,000 acres/day
Over the last decade an average of 6,000 acres of forest and open space has been lost per day in the United States - that's four acres per minute or an area the size of the city of Seattle every nine days!
With the loss of that land to development and other uses we also lose the carbon sequestration capacity of those forests to fight global warming, wildlife habitat, water filtration and flood control, aesthetic and spiritual values of the land, and the sustainable economic resources that forests provide our communities. This is why NNRG works so hard to develop incentives for long term sustainable management of our forestland.
Supporting FSC managed forests and the sustainably harvested products from them is one thing you can do to make sure those forests stay in business and are not lost to other uses.
Source:
USDA Forest Service. 2007. The Forest Service Open Space Strategy: Cooperating Across Boundaries to Sustain Natural and Working Landscapes. Report FS-889. US Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC. 15 pp.