More than 220 million acres of wetlands are thought to have existed in the lower 48 states in the 1600s. Since then more than half of our original wetlands have been drained and converted to other uses. The mid-1950s to the mid-1970s were a time of major national wetlands loss. Ironically, through a U.S. Government incentive program some of our family’s wetlands were converted to cropland 60 years ago.

Longleaf pine forests once encompassed more than 90 million acres across the Southeast, stretching from eastern Texas to southern Virginia. These forests represent some of the world’s most biologically diverse ecosystems and are home to nearly 600 plant and animal species, including 29 threatened and endangered species. Tragically over the past two centuries, development, timbering, and fire suppression reduced the ecosystem’s range by almost 97 percent.

If current development patterns continue in Atlanta, 200,000 acres of tree cover or virtually all the intact forests remaining will be lost by 2020 (Sauer 2002).

Nationwide in the years 1992-1997, 320 acres of farmland were taken out of production every hour (Sauer 2002). During this same period, Georgia lost more than one million acres of farm and forest lands to development (NRCS 2000).