eco optimism

[Leslilake1 at aol.com]

You know, I've seen this claim before, about forest acreage increasing, but I 
don't quite buy it, based purely on my own experience.  Within my lifetime 
I've seen "lots of places" turned into wall-to-wall housing developments, or 
5 acres + house, that in my childhood were miles and miles of woods.  I can 
only assume that other people have had the same experience. 

So where is all this increased forest acreage?  I read once that it's on the 
east coast somewhere, where abandoned farms and pastures have grown back into 
forests.  I've never been further east than the rockies, so I dunno.  And 
from when is the "increase" dated? 

Les

In a message dated 01-08-09 00:27:39 EDT, G. Lipow writes:

<< 2) De-forestation. Is forest acreage increasing? Yes - but OLD GROWTH

 forest is decreasing. Why is this important? Because old growth forest

 has much more biomass to prevent climate change; also old growth forest

 supports a much denser and more diverse eco-system, meaning you have a

 much greater variety of speciess.

  >>