Billy, you can be such a pessimist.
Trees aren't particularly dependent on top soil and you can replant trees successfully after you have mined.
Or consider:
About 33 percent of the United States, or ~747 million acres is forested.
About 52 million acres of this forestland is reserved for non-timber uses and managed by public agencies as parks, wilderness or similar areas.
About 191 million acres are not productive for growing wood for harvest, but are of used for watershed protection, wildlife habitat, and other uses (most of these forests are in land that is too steep/remote for commercial logging).
Forest growth nationally has exceeded harvest since the 1940s.
By 1997 forest growth exceeded harvest by 42 percent and the volume of forest growth was 380 percent greater than it had been in 1920.
Nationally, the average standing wood volume per acre in US forests is about one-third greater today than in 1952;
In the East, average volume per acre has almost doubled.
So even though US wood products consumption has increased by 50% since 1965, from 374 to 563 million cubic meters annually, the amount of our forests has also increased.
Then there are the even more massive Canadian Forests.
Of the ~1,030 million acres of forests in Canada, ~578 million acres are considered "commercial forests" in that they are capable of producing commercial species of trees as well as other non-timber benefits.
BUT, much less than half of these forests are actually used for timber production.
In Canada, 94% of the forests are publicly owned. The provinces have ownership and legislative authority over 71% percent of them and the federal government has 23% of Canada's total forest land, most of it in two of the three territories in the north.
So, with ~1.8 billion acres of forest in the US and Canada, we have no shortage of forests.
So very clearly we are managing our forests in North America quite well, and they are GROWING, not shrinking.
Arthur
