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- Info
Summary of the forest fragmentation 2000 conference: How forests are being nibbled to death by DUCs, and what to do about it
| Author: |
DeCoster, L. A. |
| Date: |
2000 |
| Periodical: |
In: Fragmentation 2000- A Conference on Sustaining Private Forests in the 21st Century. Alexandria, VA: The Sampson Group, Inc. 11 p. |
| Link: |
http://www.sampsongroup.com/acrobat/fragsum.pdf
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| Abstract: |
Forests are being parceled and peopled. More and more of America's private working forests are being fragmented into smaller pieces that are less viable economically and ecologically: so concluded most of the more than 50 papers and posters presented at the Fragmentation 2000 Conference. According to Best, Peterson, and several other presenters at the conference, the trend is accelerating faster than population growth because Americans are increasing their per capita use of land for housing and other urbanized uses. About 3 million acres (a Connecticut-size hunk of forestland) is being split into pieces smaller than 100 acres every two years, according to one estimate that was regarded as conservative by most conference attendees. Nearly as much, around 2.4 million acres of forestland, is also being converted to developed land every two years. Many of the events driving this unremitting movement toward developed uses and smaller pieces of fragmented forests are Dynamic Unintended Consequences: DUCs. They are dynamic (full of life) because they are attached to how Americans live: we keep adding more people who increasingly live in larger houses on bigger lots in or near forests. The results are often unintended. We don't set out to split forests into green remnants surrounded by houses, streets, parking lots and malls, and policies that push landowners to sell their working forests for development aren't deliberately adopted for that purpose: but those are the consequences of common lifestyle choices and many public policies supporting those choices. The DUCs contributing to America's forest fragmentation are often overfed by the American dream: big houses on big lots in a country setting, good roads and good schools achieved with low tax rates. It's understandable that most people want these things; so opposing these desires is unlikely to succeed. But Americans want forests and the benefits of forests too. Where there are wants, there are ways. |
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