Page 9 - Georgia Forestry - Issue 4 - Fall 2023

FOREST CHANGE (1974-2016)
FOREST COVER (2016)
Overall Overall loss Fluctuating gain
LAND COVER CHANGE THREATENS TOP INDUSTRIES
Land use change remains one of the greatest threats to Georgia’s forests. Since 1974, 2 million acres of forest has been cleared and/or developed for non-forestry uses. The Atlanta metro accounted for 350,000 of those acres.
DEVELOPED CHANGE (1974)
DEVELOPED CHANGE (2016)
L
MENT IS DRIVING CHANGE
LO
O
W
W
-I
I
N
N
T
T
E
E
N
N
S
S
I
I
T
T
Y
Y
D
D
E
E
V
V
E
E
L
L
O
O
P
P
PM
Over the last 50 years, Georgia’s communities have developed land quickly and broadly. Since 1974, Georgia’s developed land cover grew by 2.5 million acres, most of it low-intensity in character. That’s more than the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.
GRAPHICS COURTESY OF THE GEORGIA CONSERVANCY
Urban Sprawl Encroaches on Land
There is indeed legitimate cause for con- cern for a land crisis. Low-intensity devel- opment is driving a rapid change in land use across the state — out of sync with and even more rapid than the population growth rate. Take the metro Macon-Bibb area, for example: From 1980 to 2016, two acres were developed per every new resident, for a total of more than 61,700 acres developed.
Some of the state’s largest agricul- tural counties and outdoor recreation areas border metro Macon-Bibb and are threatened by urban sprawl. Combined, the economic impact of these two indus- tries in the state tops $100 billion each year. Of that, forestry is responsible for $41.3 billion each year.
“Look at South Georgia and you’ll see what could be called rural sprawl. Growth in other parts of the state, while not as con- centrated as you would see in a metro area, still has implications,” said Moore. “We should be aware of that and think about those implications, especially as that type of development may fragment landscapes and may create disconnections in natural systems or forested tracks that we need or would prefer for other uses.”
The sprawl of development has chewed a hole through Georgia’s agricultural land over the past half-century. Since 1970, more than 2.5 million acres of agricultural property have been developed for other uses — an amount greater than the size of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. Of that, roughly 2 million acres were forest, and only 350,000 of those forested acres were in metro Atlanta, meaning most of the loss of forest to development occurred in other areas of the state.
The cover change has also had huge implications for watersheds across the state, particularly in metro Atlanta but noticeably in other regions as well, threatening water quality and quantity for people, industry and agriculture.
Forest loss has been widespread. In fact, most Georgia counties have experienced forest loss since 2001. Many only mildly, but that forestland isn’t coming back.
“Once land of any type is converted
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