The State of the Trees · Episode 1 of 13 · 20 min
The Canary in the Forest: Are America's Forests Dying?
The United States holds about 765 million acres of forest, an area stable for a century and still growing back faster than it is cut. The alarming line is death: background mortality in western old-growth has doubled, the national carbon sink is projected to shrink by roughly a third, and several Rocky Mountain states now release carbon. The episode asks whether trees are the canary in the coal mine.
Where it happens
- United States+16 more episodesAbout 765 million acres of forest, a third of the land base
- Rocky Mountain statesSeveral have flipped from storing carbon to releasing it
- Western United States+2 more episodesOld-growth stands where background mortality has doubled
Timeline
- 1905U.S. Forest Service founded
- 1930s-1950sAbandoned farmland reverts to forest across the East
- 2009Study finds western background tree mortality has doubled
- 2015Projection that the U.S. forest carbon sink falls about 35 percent by 2037
- 2017Study maps eastern tree species shifting west and north
- 2022Forest Service records several Intermountain West states as net carbon sources
Still debated
Total forest area is stable by acres and wood volume, but the national assessment projects future net loss of forest to development even as standing volume rises.
