Bet you won’t hear about this one in the next Sierra Club newsletter… Despite repeated eco-activist claims that urban sprawl is gobbling up open space at alarming rates, apparently the U.S. has added 10 milllion acres of forest land since 1990:
WASHINGTON – Despite a booming population and urban sprawl, the United States has gained 10 million acres of forests since 1990. That’s enough trees to cover all the land in New Jersey twice. The increase, however, is spotty and probably temporary. Growth is mainly in the Northeast and Rocky Mountain states, while wooded acres dwindled in the South, Midwest and Pacific Coast. “We’re continually growing more than we’re cutting,” said Brad Smith, an authority on the nation’s trees at Forest Service headquarters in Arlington, Va. “People think urban sprawl is eating all the forest – we can’t say that.”
(Hat tip: Planetizen.com)