converted to developed uses, with implications for the condition and management of affected private forests and the watersheds in which they occur. The Forests on the Edge project seeks to improve understanding of the processes and thresholds associated with increases in housing density in private forests and likely effects on the contributions of those forests to timber, wildlife, and water resources. This report, the first in a series, displays and describes housing density projections on private forests, by watershed, across the conterminous United States. An interdisciplinary team used geographic information system (GIS) techniques to identify fourth-level watersheds containing private forests that are projected to experience increased housing density by 2030. Results indicate that some 44.2 million acres (over 11 percent) of private forests-particularly in the East, where most private forests occur-are likely to see dramatic increases in housing development in the next three decades, with consequent impacts on ecological, economic, and social services. Although conversion of forest land to other uses over time is inevitable, local jurisdictions and states can target efforts to prevent or reduce conversion of the most valuable forest lands to keep private working forests resilient and productive.Keywords: Fourth-level watershed, land use change, private forest, water quality, ecological services.
AutHors
What Is A "Private" Forest?A private forest is forest land owned by individuals, families, corporations, organizations, tribes, or the forest industry.
What Is A Forest?The term "forest" has different meanings, depending on where you live or your interest in forests. For this project, we used "land that is at least 1 acre and at least 10 percent stocked by trees of any size" (Smith et al. 2004). This is the definition most commonly used by Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis scientists, who monitor the status of our Nation's forests each year. The source Forests cover 749 million acres of the Nation's landscape. Hardwoods, conifers, and mixed species paint a diverse forest palette that ranges from sparse dry forest in the arid, interior West to lush rain forests in the Pacific Northwest, and highly productive moist forests in the South.of our data for forest cover was the National Land Cover Data compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey, which divides the country into small units (or pixels) of 323 square feet and assigns each unit to 1 of 21 vegetation categories. We selected categories that contained vegetation that was closest to our definition of forest.Private forests constitute nearly 60 percent (about 430 million acres) of America's total forest land (Smith et al. 2004) and thereby provide nearly 60 percent of all waterflow originating on U.S. forests (and nearly 30 percent of all waterflow originating on land in the lower 48) in a typical year.
2Private forests provide many other benefits to the American public. They furnish diverse habitats for fish and wildlife, providing the key to the c...
