One thing's for sure: there is no short supply of forests in US. I can say, after seeing the deforestation in France (due to agriculture use, small land base per capita, urban expansion etc) in comparison the US is loaded with forests (much more species diversity, too). However, that's only the snapshot for now...as someone mentioned above about increased fragmentation/parcelization of forest in New England, the same will apply to other or all parts of the US in time, and even a bit further in time US will look like France with croplands (exponential human pop growth, suburban/ubran expansion, etc).
As people here have said, finances are the big issue for forestry now. Seems to me the housing bubble over saturated the market with homes as the result of people expecting too much too soon (lenders AND borrows). As people have mentioned, decimated housing market. With all of the legal-financial engineering that went on in past 2 decades, a housing bubble was born from it and perhaps many people mistook that bubble growth as quality growth? It's interesting to think about the situation in forestry in US now. Transitions going on as baby boomers retire, and new generation takes the reigns...people trying to get a grasp on what's going on? (or at least I'm trying to
)
The abstraction as I see it:
major issues facing forestry are the same issues facing the US in general... issues like adapting our system to changing national and global conditions. We are searching for unified direction...seems this is a time of transition and re-evaluation. What worked yesterday isn't working the same today. America's value for individuality is a great thing and after spending time in Europe I'm more aware of the freedoms we actually have in America...however at same time I have become more conscious of how US excesses can have negative effects on people elsewhere.
In this shrinking world, some freedoms of yesterday may be relative excesses of tomorrow. As has always been the case, what we change and what we conserve will make all the difference for US.
