Deforestation in the United States

By Jonah Rawls

Loss of Trees

Since the founding of the United States it has lost nearly 75% of its original trees. We started with around 1,023,000,000 acres of trees in the US and have lost around 767,250,000 acres of them. We hardly have any amount of trees being regrown, about 0.03% increase annually, so all of our trees are essentially a lost cause.

The Damage It's Causing

Since we have lost so many trees we have wiped out the homes for many animal species, and have caused thousands of animal deaths. As we cut down more trees we lose a decent source of oxygen, we have released about 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide with deforestation. With the deforestation we have done, as of 2021, there have been 14 trillion pounds of greenhouse gasses in the air.

What's been Causing It

The primary factors of deforestation in the USA are people that are expanding croplands; the logging and timber industries; urbanization and infrastructure development; natural disasters and wildfires; and illegal logging and unsustainable practices. Industrial logging is responsible for about 31% of the deforestation in the United States.