Sprawl and Housing Density - Effects on the forests of the Southeast

Housing Sprawl in the Southeast - Our Vanishing Wild Places

Our window of opportunity to preserve much of what is left of our great Eastern Forests closes more with each new housing development in our forests. The interactive graphics below demonstrate the land that has been lost to housing sprawl and how much more will be lost if current practices fail to change. You can also find out about sprawl in the Northeast.

We have a chance to preserve for future generations much of what is left of our great Eastern Forests—and there is a lot worth saving. But the time to do so narrows with each new housing development in our forests, so we must all work together now to save our most important lands. TWS is working to establish more Wilderness areas in the east; to increase federal and state funding to purchase priority lands or development rights from willing sellers; to prevent road building & commercial logging in Forest Service roadless areas; and to create a broad understanding of how protecting forests helps to combat climate change.

The data for these maps were produced by R.B. Hammer and V.C. Radeloff at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, with funding from the USDA Forest Service North Central Research Station.