New Hampshire and Deforestation
Nick Gagliardi
Jay Knower
Composition
December 2, 2011
New Hampshire and Deforestation Many people today see New Hampshire as a woods infested state with so much beautiful nature and an incredible amount plants, lakes, and wild life. Most people who live here think there is so much forests that when deforestation occurs, they believe it doesn’t pose a threat or make a dent. The Granite State has been a victim of deforestation for many years and it has believed to be getting worse every year but to a larger group, it has been actually getting better. Could it be turning into a problem today or a bigger problem in the future? Is deforestation becoming a problem for New Hampshire? New Hampshire, with 78.4% forest cover, is currently the second most forested state in the country with Maine being the first. However, the forest cover has been steadily declining since the 1980s. “This loss is about 17,500 acres per year, mostly due to land development” and “Every day, the average person in the USA will consume about 4.5 pounds of wood, that 's a little over a third of a two-by-four. Over the course of a year, that adds up to a 16-18" tree, a hundred feet tall” (Forest Service). Each year, the nation plants more than 5 new trees for each American. Wood is a renewable resource. As long as forests are not converted by development, harvesting trees does not result in an increase of carbon in the atmosphere. Today there are certain foundations and things to do to prevent deforestation. Although we need wood to cut down for certain things, we plant three trees for every tree we cut down. This is called the 3 to 1 Ratio by Society Protecting New Hampshire Forest’s.
About one hundred years ago the White Mountains didn’t look so well according to the many photographs taken of the mountain sides stripped of all the trees of what was once a virgin forest. The forest wasn’t looking so well with the “streams choked with silt from eroding hillsides, and ash from forest
Jay Knower
Composition
December 2, 2011
New Hampshire and Deforestation Many people today see New Hampshire as a woods infested state with so much beautiful nature and an incredible amount plants, lakes, and wild life. Most people who live here think there is so much forests that when deforestation occurs, they believe it doesn’t pose a threat or make a dent. The Granite State has been a victim of deforestation for many years and it has believed to be getting worse every year but to a larger group, it has been actually getting better. Could it be turning into a problem today or a bigger problem in the future? Is deforestation becoming a problem for New Hampshire? New Hampshire, with 78.4% forest cover, is currently the second most forested state in the country with Maine being the first. However, the forest cover has been steadily declining since the 1980s. “This loss is about 17,500 acres per year, mostly due to land development” and “Every day, the average person in the USA will consume about 4.5 pounds of wood, that 's a little over a third of a two-by-four. Over the course of a year, that adds up to a 16-18" tree, a hundred feet tall” (Forest Service). Each year, the nation plants more than 5 new trees for each American. Wood is a renewable resource. As long as forests are not converted by development, harvesting trees does not result in an increase of carbon in the atmosphere. Today there are certain foundations and things to do to prevent deforestation. Although we need wood to cut down for certain things, we plant three trees for every tree we cut down. This is called the 3 to 1 Ratio by Society Protecting New Hampshire Forest’s.
About one hundred years ago the White Mountains didn’t look so well according to the many photographs taken of the mountain sides stripped of all the trees of what was once a virgin forest. The forest wasn’t looking so well with the “streams choked with silt from eroding hillsides, and ash from forest
Cited: "Forest Society : Press Releases." Forest Society: Welcome. 2004-2011. Web. 01 Dec. 2011 Govatski, David. "Weeks Act." Home Page. White Mountain History, 2009. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. http://whitemountainhistory.org/Weeks_Act.html State, Plymouth. "Weeks Act Centennial 2011." Plymouth State University. Web. 01 Dec. 2011. http://www.plymouth.edu/center-for-rural-partnerships/weeks-act/