Posthaste Facts on the Environment #8

Environmentalists Can't See the Forests From the Trees

Produced 1994

Environmentalists would have us believe that we are running out of trees. The truth is, we we have more than we did 40 years ago.

Some self-styled "environmentalists" would have us believe that most of America's forests have been cut down. Here are the facts:

• 70% of the forests standing in 1600 are still standing today -- or some 737 million acres of forests.
• 247 million acres of forests -- or over one-third of the total forest land -- is either protected against harvest by law or slow-growing woodland unsuitable for logging.
• U.S. timberlands -- the 490 million acres of forests open to logging -- contain 28% more standing timber volume than they did in 1952. Hardwoods have increased from 184,090 million cubic feet in 1952 to 335,722 million cubic feet in 1992, an 82% increase, while softwood have grown from 431,794 to 449,895 million cubic feet, a 4% rise.

Information from Forests Today & Forever, V. 8, Issue 2 Issued: May 6, 1994

Posthaste Facts on the Environment #8, published by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 501 Capitol Court, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax (202) 543-5975, E-Mail info@nationalcenter.org, Web http://www.nationalcenter.org. For more information about Posthaste #8 contact Bob Adams at 202/543-4110 or EPTF@aol.com.

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