Re: Are there more trees in the US today than there were in Colonial days?

In your debate, it would be a good tactic to ask your father where he got his 
information and investigate his sources. This is a rather tricky question. The 
first website cited addresses your question and makes a very important point 
that if there are more trees today it would only be because there are much 
younger forests and younger, smaller trees that take up less space than the 
very large trees in virgin forests of Colonial times. Therefore, it is 
important what you consider a tree, a small seedling or sapling or a fairly 
large mature plant. Large numbers of tree seeds sprout each year in unforested 
areas but very few of them develop into mature trees. For example, millions of 
tree seedlings sprout each year in mowed areas such as lawns but they are all 
cut down by the mowing. I don't think it would be fair to count them as trees. 
In Colonial times relatively fewer tree seedlings sprouted in virgin forests 
because it was too shady. Would it also really be fair to count the tens-of-
millions of live, but small, Christmas trees grown and harvested each year as 
trees? 

Your father's idea that technology allows us to "better preserve trees" is 
correct in some ways but it applies more to landscape trees rather than forest 
trees. Landscape trees can grow to much greater ages with proper disease and 
pest control methods. More rapidly growing forest tree varieties actually mean 
the lifespan of the trees is shorter because they are logged more often. Since 
Colonial times, the USA has basically lost two major forest tree species, the 
American chestnut and American elm, both nearly wiped out by imported diseases.

Before Columbus arrived in North America, there was basically one continuous 
forest in the Eastern United States west to beyond the Mississippi River. It 
was said that a squirrel could go branch to branch from the east coast to the 
Mississippi River without touching the ground. A biome map would be the same 
now as in Colonial times because it is based on climate. A biome map shows that 
half or more of the USA area consists of forest biomes, even though most of the 
trees have been cut down in many of those forest biomes. Notice that second 
behind forests in area are grasslands in the Central USA and third in area is 
desert in the Southwest. 

Today, only remnants of the great eastern USA forests remain. Nonforested areas 
today include farm fields, buildings, home lawns, roads, golf courses, athletic 
fields, parking lots, cemetaries, etc. There has also been substantial 
deforestation in the western United States since Colonial times. Therefore, my 
educated guess it that there are fewer trees in the United States today than in 
Colonial times assuming that seedlings and small saplings are not included. 
Maybe a more better way to put it is that there is definitely much less 
forested area today than in Colonial times.

The central USA, which was originally grassland or prairie, has gained trees 
since Colonial times but not enough to offset the losses in the other parts of 
the USA. The founder of Arbor Day, Julius Sterling Morton, lived in Nebraska, a 
prairie state. He promoted tree planting on the treeless plains. The first 
Arbor Day in 1872 was celebrated by planting one million trees in Nebraska. 
There have been gains in tree numbers in desert biomes, such as Arizona and 
Nevada, where people have planted trees in irrigated landscapes in homes and 
cities. However, trees have been planted in limited areas so it is still not 
enough to offset the losses in forest biomes.

For further information you may want to contact organizations such as American 
Forests, National Arbor Day Foundation, and Friends of Trees.


References


More Trees Today?


Designing Trees


North America Biome Map


Squirrel Going Tree to Tree in Colonial Forest


American Forests


National Arbor Day Foundation


Friends of Trees