DEFORESTATION: Area of virgin forest from 1620 to today

Note: Each tiny dot (which are hard to see so click the image for a larger view) represents 25,000 acres.

Undoubtedly, the commodification or consumption of natural resources allowed for economic and sprawling growth within the United States and abroad. However, our culture of aggressive growth, which ignores the negative consequences of our actions, has been detrimental to natural landscapes and ecosystems.

What will humanity do as human populations continue to expand and crave unsustainable lifestyles but natural resources become too scarce or nonexistent to support our culture of overconsumption? Certainly, more species will go extinct as a result of the overconsumption of natural resources. Furthermore, unsustainable living will lead to conflict and war, since energy, goods, and services are derived from natural resources. In fact, the lack of sustainability is our culture is already resulting in conflict and war.

Obviously, some species have already become extinct, some are going extinct at this very moment, and many more will become extinct as we continue to change ecosystems and natural landscapes. A flagship species for anthropogenically-induced extinction is the ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis). The large woodpecker’s survival depended (or depends) on old-growth forests. From Wikipedia:

Heavy logging activity exacerbated by hunting by collectors devastated the population of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the late 1800s. It was generally considered extinct in the 1920s, when a pair turned up in Florida, only to be shot for specimens.

By 1938, an estimated 20 individuals remained in the wild, some 6-8 of which were located in the old-growth forest called the Singer Tract in Louisiana, where logging rights were held by the Chicago Mill and Lumber Company. The company brushed aside pleas from four Southern governors and the National Audubon Society that the tract be publicly purchased and set aside as a reserve, and clearcut the forest. By 1944 the last known Ivory-billed Woodpecker, a female, was gone from the cut-over tract (Smithsonian p 98).

The deforestation of old-growth forests is directly related to the demise of the ivory-billed woodpecker. It may still exist in remote pockets of the United States. If it does, then perhaps it will be a symbol for second chances.

More information about the above image illustrating the history of deforestation within the United States can be found here. The ivory-billed woodpecker image was found here.

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8 thoughts on “DEFORESTATION: Area of virgin forest from 1620 to today”

Great post and solid information. An interesting point (and not a small one), however, is that we actually have more forest today in most states than we did 30 years ago or 50 years ago or even 100 years ago. The forest is more fragmented in many cases, but it IS more forest, and vast expanses of “virgin” forest is not always best for all wildlife. And while some of these forests are tree plantations, most are not.

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Very true PBurns. Some wildlife prefer cut overs, fields, and young forests. Most certainly there has been a community shift, with the species that are more adaptable to the changed or worked landscapes having increased in numbers than others. It shows how much we have changed “Nature,” (and even the Native Americans shaped the landscape).

However, species that I associate with cut overs and fields, such as bobwhite, whip-poor-will or even some insects and amphibians that I use to see all over my parent’s property while growing up in North Carolina seem nonexistent today; while other species, such as skunks or coyotes seem to be more prevalent today.

In North Carolina, I haven’t heard a bobwhite or whip-poor-will near my parent’s home in many years, and these calls use to be very common.

Nonetheless, a mature diverse forest is very much alive with creatures, and the grandeur of mature and/or virgin forests is captivating.

PBurns has an excellent blog at Terrierman’s Daily Dose: http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/

Check it out.

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Buck,

Great map “Area of virgin forest from 1620 to today”!

Virgin forest forest are best, but acres under the control of natural forces are good, too.

Richard
Brattleboro, VT USA

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Hi Buck, the map you show is revealing and worrying. Here in Finland we have a big problem: less old-growth forests. I did a lot of research on Finnish colonization to northeast Argentina and studied how the colonlists destroyed the forest at Colonia Finlandesa in Misiones province thanks to tobacco farming. This is a recurring problem in all of the areas where foreign colonists settled. Keep up the good work. People should make an effort on how to coexist with the environment.
Enrique
Finland

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