The United States has lost approximately 75 percent of its original forest cover since European colonization transforming the American landscape dramatically. Over 36 million acres of forest have been lost since the year 2000 alone due to urban development commercial logging wildfires and agricultural expansion. Every day approximately 6000 acres of forest and open land are converted to development for housing commercial buildings and infrastructure projects. This loss of forests reduces carbon absorption destroys wildlife habitat degrades water quality and diminishes the natural beauty of America.
Old growth forests which took hundreds of years to develop are being logged at alarming rates particularly in the Pacific Northwest region. These ancient forests support incredible biodiversity store enormous amounts of carbon and provide ecosystem services worth billions of dollars annually. Urban sprawl is consuming forests farmland and natural areas at unprecedented rates as American cities expand outward into previously undeveloped land. The loss of forests and natural land also increases the risk of flooding as natural water absorption is replaced by impervious surfaces.