{news} Fw: Stopping forest loss in the land of Thoreau [AND CT!]

[Justine McCabe]

 Stopping forest loss in the land of Thoreau
> 
> States like Massachusetts are losing 72 acres per day to 
> urbanization. 
> 
> By Caitlin Carpenter 
> 
> September 06, 2007, Christian Science Monitor
> 
> http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0906/p01s02-usgn.html 
> 
> It's enough to make Henry David Thoreau weep.
> 
> New England - the home of Vermont maple trees bursting with
> sweet syrup, and balsam fir and red spruce spread across New
> Hampshire's White Mountains - is losing its forests.
> 
> Of all America's forests under pressure from development, New
> England's are shrinking the fastest.
> 
> The problem is severe enough that some conservation groups say
> they have limited time to act.
> 
> "The window for conserving forests is closing," says Andy
> Swinton, director of field science with The Nature
> Conservancy, a nonprofit habitat conservation organization.
> But "there's really an opportunity here, because the next 20
> years will determine the character of New England forests.
> This is a race against time, and the time to act is now."
> 
> The region's forests had made quite a comeback in the past two
> centuries: As agriculture declined, fields went back to wooded
> land. Now, however, those forests are under threat - from
> homeowners, this time. In their push to create more housing in
> an area where home prices are already through the roof,
> developers are moving into wooded land.
> 
> The numbers are stark, particularly in southern New England.
> By 2050, 70 percent of Rhode Island and 61 percent of
> Connecticut will be urbanized, according to a recent report in
> the Journal of Forestry by two researchers with the US
> Agriculture Department's Forest Service. Massachusetts is
> already losing 40 acres a day to development, estimates Mass
> Audubon. These three states will lose the highest percentage
> of forest of any state by mid-century, the Forest Service
> researchers say.
> 
> Part of the reason for the region's forest loss is its
> population density. Its urban areas are already so developed
> that they're pushing out, often into surrounding forests. The
> other factor is New England's development pattern and
> lifestyle.
> 
> Take long-distance commuting. The Southwest may be famous for
> its vast metropolises, but the trend is actually more
> pronounced in New England, says Kathy Sferra, a land
> protection expert at Mass Audubon.
> 
> For example: To be able to afford the cost of living, many
> workers live in less expensive housing far from the urban
> centers where they work. That leads to more crowded highways.
> In addition to the 40 acres the state loses every day to
> sprawling development, it loses an additional 38 acres to the
> "hidden" cost of development, such as road construction.
> 
> And, as in the rest of New England, most of Massachusetts'
> residential developments are low density, meaning few people
> living in large houses on big lots.
> 
> Residential lot sizes have increased 47 percent since 1970 in
> Massachusetts, according to Mass Audubon. New England's
> average lot size for new residential construction is the
> largest in the country at 1.3 acres, and its median lot size
> is three times the national average, says the Massachusetts
> Institute of Technology's Center for Real Estate and the
> Massachusetts Housing Partnership.
> 
> Meanwhile, the state's household size has shrunk 20 percent
> since 1970 to 2.5 people per household. Small wonder then that
> while New England's population increased 6.6 percent between
> 1990 and 2000, its total housing units grew 7.4 percent,
> according to the Rhode Island Department of Labor and
> Training.
> 
> Houses are also getting bigger. The National Association of
> Home Builders found that 40 percent of new homes in the
> Northeast have four or more bedrooms, making the region the
> national leader in terms of the size of homes.
> 
> These trends have spurred conservation groups to work more
> strategically, buying and protecting large plots of land in
> key areas rather than small, isolated locations.
> 
> "We've learned that doing conservation willy-nilly doesn't
> help because we end up with fragmented forests," says Mr.
> Swinton. "Since development is going to happen, we now know we
> need systematic, collaborative planning with the government,
> land trusts, and nonprofits to make sure that development and
> conserved forest area are intelligently designed."
> 
> For example: The Nature Conservancy worked with West
> Greenwich, R.I., and other conservation groups to purchase
> 1,700 acres of forest surrounding its town in an effort to
> protect the land. The conservancy's Borderlands Project is
> looking to accomplish a similar feat in another town in Rhode
> Island or Connecticut.
> 
> Conservation groups are also helping local governments improve
> their planning for infrastructure that leads to development,
> such as roads and Interstates, while minimizing sprawl and
> forest destruction.
> 
> State governments are also getting involved. Last month,
> Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell (R) created a state office to "plot
> a new, antisprawl course." Rhode Island is now developing a
> land-use plan to encourage urban-center development.
> Massachusetts announced Aug. 4 that it would spend $50 million
> on conservation over the next five years, an increase of $20
> million over its conservation spending during the past four
> years.
> 
> Forest-conservation groups next want to convince New England
> state governments to allocate some of the revenue generated
> through their greenhouse-gas reduction initiative to forest
> protection, according to Swinton.
> 
> Conservationists say that they'll need to bring all their
> tools to bear on the challenge of deforestation.
> 
> "Forests in this area made a comeback in the last century, but
> it looks like the pendulum is swinging in the opposite
> direction," he says.
> 

>