Urban Sprawl Quickens Its Attack on Forests
12/7/99
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Title: Sprawl Quickens Its Attack on Forests
Source: The New York Times
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 7, 1999
Byline: William K. Stevens
Despite some progress in conservation, the nation's privately held
cropland, forests, soil and wetlands continue to give way to
development and erosion, the United States Department of Agriculture
is reporting today.
One of the most striking findings of the agency's natural resources
inventory, a statistical snapshot produced at five-year intervals
starting in 1982, is that the rate at which farmland and forests are
being lost to urban, suburban and small-town development is
quickening.
More land was developed between 1992 and 1997 than in the entire
decade from 1982 to 1992 -- 16 million acres compared with 13.9
million -- according to the inventory.
The report is being released at a one-day meeting on private lands
conservation convened in Ames, Iowa, by Agriculture Secretary Dan
Glickman.
Private property accounts for about 75 percent of the nation's
landscape.
Land was converted to development at a rate of a little over 3
million acres a year from 1992 to 1997, more than double the rate
from 1982 to 1992.
And while development is usually thought of in connection with
suburban sprawl, officials said it was now a prominent feature in
small and medium-sized cities.
"It is as significant an issue in Des Moines as it is in the New York
metropolitan area," said James Lyons, the under secretary of
agriculture for natural resources and environment.
Built-up areas accounted, over all, for 7 percent of total private
lands in 1997, up from 5 percent in 1982.
The biggest impact of development is on forests, Mr. Lyons said in a
telephone interview, with more than 6 million acres of forest cleared
for development between 1992 and 1997.
Moreover, Mr. Lyons said, established metropolitan areas are losing
their trees even as the urban fringe surges outward. About 37 percent
of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, for instance, was covered
by trees in 1973, according to a separate study, but only 13 percent
in 1997.
"We're seeing those trends elsewhere," said Mr. Lyons.
"If you combine rapid expansion with deforestation of these urban and
suburban areas, the quality of life we've come to appreciate is
changing dramatically."
Outside built-up areas, the picture on forests is more encouraging.
Overall, according to the national inventory, private forestland
increased somewhat from 1982 to 1997, by 800,000 acres, continuing a
long-term reforestation trend in some parts of the country.
But cropland declined by 13 million acres, pastureland by 14 million
acres and rangeland by 12 million acres.
Cropland in 1997 accounted for 25 percent of the 1.5 billion acres of
private land, forests and rangeland for 27 percent each and
pastureland for 8 percent.
Substantial gains have been made in restoring or creating wetlands on
agricultural lands, according to the inventory, with 30,000 acres a
year added from 1992 to 1997, compared with only 4,000 acres a year
from 1982 to 1992.
But at the same time, wetland losses on farmland increased to about
54,000 acres a year, continuing a long-term net loss. About a third
of the loss resulted from development of farmland, Mr. Lyons said.
Soil erosion on farmland has been reduced by about 38 percent since
1982, according to the survey, but the reduction has leveled off
since 1995. Almost 2 billion tons of soil is lost to erosion,
according to the inventory. Thirty percent of the nation's farmland
was reported to be eroding excessively.
For the panoply of renewable natural resources as a whole, said Mr.
Lyons, "while we've made tremendous strides in conservation, we are
at the point where we are figuratively and literally losing ground."
In another trend identified by the inventory, agricultural irrigation
has declined in the West, where a drier climate has historically made
it more prevalent, but has grown in the East.
Irrigated land has declined by about 1.5 million acres in the West
and expanded by about a million acres in the East in the last 15
years.
In the East, said Mr. Lyons, "we're setting ourselves up for a
potential fight over water not unlike what is thought of as the war
in the West over water."