Published:
February 1, 2002
Originator:
American Forests

American Forests originally conducted a Regional Ecosystem Analysis (REA) of the Chesapeake Bay Region in 1999. This tudy looked at how the landscape changed over time in an 11.4 million acre study area in the souteast portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. As an extension to that study, American Forests has conducted similar analyses in two adjacent areas of the watershed. In the initial study, it was determined the Chesapeake Bay had lost significant amount of its tree cover average canopy declined from 51% in 1972 to 39% in 1997. Similar trends have been identified in the new study areas surrounding Charlottesville, VA (5.3 million acres) and Harrisburg, PA (7.5 million acres). These two areas are the focus of this study.

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