At the turn of the century, leaders in the emerging conservaton movement warned that the United States would soon run out of trees. These forecasts were not without foundation.

• By 1920, only 600 million of America's previous 1 billion acres of forest remained.

• Between 1850 and 1920, fuel wood consumption tripled and industrial wood consumption quintupled.

• For more than 50 of those years, farmers cleared forests at the rate of 8,640 acres per day.

• But something remarkable happened. In the past 70 years, American forests have been reborn.

• The area of forestland is about the same as in 1920 - 600 million acres in the continental United States — but there are far more trees because of greater tree density per acre.

• Fifty-nine percent of the northeastern United States is covered by forest even though the population density of 260 people per square mile is more than three times the national average.

There are three major reasons for the improvement of America's forests:

• Better forest management techniques, such as wildfire control, have been developed, and wildfires consume one-tenth the acreage they did at the turn of the century.

• Rapid technological changes, such as the development of wood preservatives, have led to more efficient use of forest resources.

• The marketplace has given private land owners an incentive to replant trees, and more than 80 percent of forest planting - nearly 3 million acres each year - now occurs on private land.

Source: Jonathan Adler, "Poplar Front: The Rebirth of America's Forests," Policy Review, Spring 1993, No. 64, Heritage Foundation, 214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20002, (202) 546-4400.

ea so 93j