About two-thirds (504 million acres) of the Nation's forests are classed as timberland, productive forests capable of producing 20 cubic feet per acre of industrial wood annually and not legally reserved from timber harvest. The USDA's 1997 National Resource Inventory shows that, nationally, 11 million acres of forest, cropland, and open space were converted to urban and other developed uses from 1992 to 1997, as the national rate of urbanization increased notably compared to the 1982-92 period. Forest land was the largest source of land converted to developed uses such as urbanization. Urban and other developed areas are projected to continue to grow substantially, in line with a projected U.S. population increase of more than 120 million people over the next 50 years, with population growth occurring the fastest in the West and South. Projected increases in population and income will, in turn, increase demands for use of land for residential, urban, transportation, and related uses. An overall net loss in forest area in the United States since the early 1950s has been due to a combination of factors, but in more recent decades has been primarily due to conversion to urban and developed uses. Total forest area in the United States is projected to decrease by approximately 23 million acres by 2050, a 3-percent reduction from the 1997 forest area. Consistent with the projected slow net decline in U.S. forestland area, private timberland area is likewise projected to decline. Total area of U.S. private timberland is projected to decline by 4 percent by 2050. Industry timberland is projected to decrease by 3.0 percent by 2050, whereas timberland area on nonindustrial private lands is projected to decrease by 4.4 percent.

Describes area changes among major land uses on the U.S. land base for historical trends from 1982 to 2002 and projections out to 2062. Historically, 11 million acres of forest, cropland, and open space were converted to urban and other developed uses from 1992 to 1997 on non-federal land in the contiguous U.S. The largest percentage increase was in urban use, which grew by 10% or 7.3 million acres between 1997 and 2001. Forest land was the largest source of land converted to developed uses such as urbanization. Urban and other developed areas are projected to continue to grow substantially, in line with a projected U.S. population increase of more than 120 million people over the next 50 years. Figures. This is a print on demand publication.

The United States has a diverse array of forest cover types on its 747 million acres of forest land. Forests in the United States have been shaped by many natural and human-caused forces, including climate, physiography, geology, soils, water, fire, land use changes, timber harvests, and other human interventions. The major purpose of this document is to describe area projections of forest cover changes on timberland areas of the United States, in support of the 2000 Resources Planning Act assessment by the USDA Forest Service. Forest area projections differ markedly by region, owner, and forest cover type. Although some regions such as the North are projected to have relatively small percentage changes in common types such as maple-beech-birch (less than 5 percent), others in the South have relatively large projected changes: reductions of 19 percent for upland hardwood on nonindustrial private forest timberlands and 58 percent on forest industry timberlands in the South Central region; and increases in excess of 25 percent for planted pine for both private ownerships in the South. Although the area of softwoods is projected to increase across many regions of the country, especially on forest industry lands, hardwoods will remain the dominant forest type on private lands.

The Agricultural Outlook 2019-2028 is a collaborative effort of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. It brings together the commodity, policy and country expertise of both organisations as well ...

Filling a long-standing need for a desk reference that synthesizes current research, Land Use Effects on Streamflow and Water Quality in the Northeastern United States reviews and discusses the impact of forest management, agriculture, and urbanization. The book provides a gateway to the diverse scientific literature that is urgently needed

This book, containing 31 chapters grouped into two parts, provides rich and multi-faceted documentation of current progress being made in creating the political, economic and social conditions indispensable for sustainable and multi-functional use of forest resources, and notes the obstacles that needs to be removed to reach this goal. The first part (chapters 1-9) introduces general and global aspects that have to be considered in the context of cross sectoral policy coordination. This include discussions on the impact of external shocks such as a sudden oil price increase on forest management, the impact of energy or trade policies on global wood markets and the role of decentralization in integrating multiple demands on forests. The second part of the book deals with regional, national and local issues of cross-sectoral policy linkages. The chapters on Africa (chapters 10-15) focus largely on the improvement of land management practices such as agroforestry, land tenure and gender issues, more integrative policies in promoting reforestation and afforestation, multiple stakeholder planning processes and external policy impacts in protecting and managing Miombo forests. In Asia (chapters 16-20), important subjects appearing in several chapters are the need to develop environmental and economic accounts for forestry, and to demonstrate more clearly the great importance of non-timber forest product linkages, road construction and population effects of forest conversion, community forest management contributions to the local and national economy, and cross-sectoral policy links in the development of mountainous areas are other issues addressed. In the Europe part (chapters 21-24); both environmental problems as well as strong trends towards developing a competitive forest and wood-processing sector determine public policy development to a considerable extent. This can be seen from leading policy scenarios that have been identified from the changes in perceptions with regard to the forest sector and from the policy issues at national level that are presented. A somewhat similar pattern of competing policy demands between resource use, industrial expansion and strong environmental demands emerges from the contributions dealing with the Americas (chapters 25-31). These chapters contain the experiences of the USA in cross-sectoral impact analysis, the lessons to be learned from the long and confliction history in managing the national forests, as well as from the resource conflicts described between forestry uses, oil and gas development and environmental protection in the boreal regions of Canada.