Jim Carlton of the Wall Street Journal: “Community forests are spreading across the U.S., as more cities and counties seek to rein in development and excessive logging by taking control of the woods themselves….. The trend started in earnest little more than a decade ago, but more than 3,000 cities in 43 states own and manage forests totally 4.5 million acres.”
Towns are discovering that development will threaten as much as 44 million acres of private forests, or 10% of the total, by the year 2030. Key culprits include logging, shopping malls and second home estates. There are special budgetary and management challenges for a town to own a forest, but as Arcata, California – a pioneer in the field – has shown, it is a reasonable and attractive proposition.
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