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Forests of the United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It has been estimated that before European settlement, forests in the United States mainland covered nearly 1 billion acres (4,000,000 km2).[1] Since the mid-1600s, about 300 million acres (1,200,000 km2) of forest have been cleared, primarily for agriculture during the 19th century.[1]
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As of 2016, roughly 36.21% (about one-third of the U.S.) is forested.[2] Excluding the U.S. territories, forested land in the U.S. covers roughly 818,814,000 acres (3,313,622 square kilometers).[2] As of 2005, the United States ranked seventh in the rate of loss of its old growth forests.[3]