Conservation in Context
Sustaining America’s Forest Legacy
America’s 750 million acres of pri-
vate and public forest lands are a
remarkable legacy of this nation’s
commitment to forest conservation
and restoration over the past cen-
tury. This forest legacy provides a
wide range of benefits and values
including wood, clean water, wild-
life, recreation, green space, carbon
uptake and storage, cultural lega-
cies and connections, and aesthetic
beauty and inspiration—not to men-
tion jobs and tax revenues to support
schools and local government.
But our world is changing, our
forests are changing, and our forest
legacy is in peril (NCSSF 2008).
• Changing demographics: Our in-
creasing numbers mean increasing
demand. The population of the
United States has grown by 75%
over the past 50 years, and it is
expected to grow by another 40%
by 2050. In 1955 there were 8.5
acres of forest for every Ameri-
can. Today it is 4.7 acres. Assum-
ing current trends in land develop-
ment and forest conversion con-
tinue, U.S. per capita forest area
will be 1.8 acres in 2050.
• Changing human demands on
forest lands: The demands placed
on forest land have grown in quan-
tity and complexity. Demand for
wood products, clean water, recre-
ation, and wildlife continues to
grow, along with accelerated inter-
est in forests as a primary energy
source and a repository for carbon.
There is unprecedented growth in
demand for land for development,
with human influences on forests
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C 2008 Society for Conservation Biology
DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2008.01102.x
extending far beyond the areas that
are actually developed.
• Changing forest cover: Forest
lands are rapidly disappearing, es-
pecially in urban-rural transitions
where the benefits and values of
forest cover are so badly needed.
The extent of and commitment to
streamside forest buffers on agri-
cultural landscapes depends too
heavily on the whims of the mar-
ketplace and uncertainties of elec-
toral cycles and Farm Bill reautho-
rizations.
• Changing forest health: Even
where acreage is stable, forest ben-
efits and values are increasingly
diminished. Wildlife diversity and
ecosystem services are decreasing
as a consequence of the fragmen-
tation of forests by roads and de-
velopment and by the growth in
single-species, short-rotation forest
management. To these changes is
added a growing litany of inva-
sive nonnative species that influ-
ence forest biodiversity and man-
agement options in all regions.
New diseases and insect pests ap-
pear in U.S. forests each year, cau-
sing losses of trees and even spe-
cies in every region of the country.
In many western forest types,
fire suppression coupled with his-
toric management practices has
increased flammable fuels within
stands and across forested land-
scapes. This, along with drought
and increased human access, has
increased the likelihood of ignition
of severe fires and their propaga-
tion across large areas. That the
number of state and federally listed
threatened and endangered forest
species continues to grow should
be no surprise.
• Changing climate: Human activi-
ties are causing concentrations of
carbon dioxide and other heat-
trapping gases to increase and
temperatures to rise in our atmo-
sphere. These changes are already
influencing many forest species
and processes. Development and
landscape fragmentation confound
these impacts. Future forest man-
agers may need to consider means
of augmenting natural rates of
adaptation and species movement.
Nevertheless, forests store large
quantities of Earth’s carbon, and
they may be managed to store even
more. Thus, forest management is
a potentially important tool to mit-
igate carbon emissions and global
warming.
Some of these changes are in-
evitable, others are not. To sustain
the forest benefits and values we
cherish, our lands must be managed
to reverse adverse change where that
is possible and to adapt to changes
that cannot be reversed. This man-
agement will require a shared under-
standing of the importance of Amer-
ica’s forests and a bold, new vision
for their future. A central tenet of that
understanding is that forests are key-
stone elements in the conservation
of air, water, biological diversity, and
beauty across the full gradient of hu-
man land uses. Central to that vision
are policies and actions aimed at con-
serving the full complement of forest
benefits and values across entire land-
scapes. The following must be among
those policies and actions.
Christensen
• Reprioritize forest management
objectives on public lands. Over
the past century, public forests
such as the National Forest Sys-
tem have become islands of wild-
life habitat, water protection, and
recreation in a sea of conflicting
uses on private lands. Land-use pol-
icy must now acknowledge this
change and set the conservation of
these specific benefits and values
as the highest priority for public
lands. Such policies will have the
added benefit of enhancing carbon
uptake and storage.
• Provide stable and permanent in-
centives for forest greenways and
buffers on both urban and ru-
ral landscapes. Through financial
incentives and land planning, fu-
ture policies must encourage es-
tablishment and maintenance of
permanent forest corridors that re-
connect the forest landscape and
sustain flows of clean water in
streams and rivers. Reconnected
landscapes will mitigate global
warming and be a source of beauty.
• Improve planning and coordi-
nation across jurisdictions and
ownerships. Future policies will
provide incentives and institu-
tions for forest ecosystem manage-
ment across ownership and juris-
dictional boundaries. These pro-
grams will encourage participation
and foster trust among all stake-
holders. They are especially impor-
tant for effective management of
forest health challenges that ex-
tend across traditional borders of
jurisdiction and ownership.
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• Implement innovative and effec-
tive communication and learn-
ing. Future policies and programs
will foster understating of the im-
portance of integrated land plan-
ning and management and of the
multiple benefits and values that
obtained from such management.
Norman L. Christensen, Jr.
Nicholas School of the Environment, Box
90329, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708,
U.S.A., email normc@duke.edu
Literature Cited
NCSSF. 2008. Forests for Tomorrow. The
final report of the National Commis-
sion on Science for Sustainable Forestry.
www.ncssf.org (accessed August 2008).
Conservation Biology
Volume 22, No. 6, 2008