The United States has witnessed a significant shift in its tree cover landscape over the years. With an area spanning over 947 million hectares, the U.S. boasts a substantial tree cover extent of approximately 279 million hectares. However, recent data indicates a troubling trend of tree cover loss due to various factors, including forestry activities, urbanization, and increasingly, wildfires.
Forestry remains the leading cause of tree cover loss, contributing to a staggering majority of the total loss over the years. Urbanization also plays a notable role, consistently leading to the loss of thousands of hectares annually. Wildfires, while variable, have shown a worrying increase in both frequency and impact, with incidents like the recent single alert in Florida highlighting the ongoing risk.
Explore country profileThe net change in tree cover reveals a loss of over 17 million hectares, partially offset by a gain of nearly 14 million hectares. This results in a net loss of approximately 3.50 million hectares, indicating a negative change of around 1.23% in the overall tree cover. These figures underscore the need for a broader discussion on sustainable land management and the mitigation of risk factors contributing to tree cover loss.
