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Cause for Concern in the United States, Canada, Bermuda, Alaska
Nearctic
•
Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests
Eastern forest-boreal transition
The vast majority of this ecoregion has been broken up and damaged by human activities. Forests have been cut for timber, roads, farms, and summer homes and ski facilities. Scientists estimate that only 10 percent of this ecoregion remains as intact habitat. The timber industry today continues to be very active in the ecoregion, particularly in the Canadian portion. Mining is another growing threat, and tourism is beginning to create significant impacts in some areas.
The once-pristine St. Lawrence River now has the distinction of being one of the most polluted waterways in North America. And in the forests that surround it, bird songs are being drowned out by the sounds of saws and hammers as summer homes are constructed or forest trees are cut to make room for apple orchards. This growth destroys even more habitat than the 95 percent that has already been lost to suburban development outside cities such as Montreal, and Albany, New York. The largest intact block of habitat that remains is no bigger than 100 square miles (250 sq km).
Only three percent of this entire ecoregion is still intact, and more than 75 percent has been heavily altered by human activities, especially logging and agriculture. By the1800s, a good portion of the forest had already been destroyed by conversion of land for agriculture and by logging for shipbuilding. Today, major threats include continued logging, agriculture, peat mining, and increased shoreline development.
At the time when European settlers arrived in the area, virgin stands of cypress, mingled with gum, hickory, oak, and cedar, were typically 400-600 years old. Over the last century, most of these forests have been logged, and few individual trees over 200 years old remain. Most of the land today has been converted to soybean farms. Even though so little forest remains, logging is a continuing threat, as is pollution. The loss of floodwaters due to dams and channels inhibits the forests from regenerating.
Nearly all of the New England Acadian forest has been affected by human activity, whether it be agriculture, mining, or construction of summer homes. While clearing for agriculture was a big threat in the 19th century, logging is the main cause of habitat loss today. Logging is an important industry in areas such as Maine and Quebec, and many areas of this ecoregion are now undergoing a third forest cutting rotation. Agriculture is still extensive in some areas, and the development of ski resorts and residential areas is a growing problem.
The Northeast is known more for its big cities and people than its wildlife. It is not surprising, therefore, that more than 98 percent of the ecoregion has been lost to cities and their associated suburban sprawl. When the first settlers came, the northeastern forests were the first in the United States to suffer from heavy logging. Practically no old-growth forest remains in this ecoregion today. Unfortunately, development in this area continues to grow and is expected to significantly alter at least 25 percent of the remaining intact habitat within the next 20 years. Shoreline erosion, exotic species, and overcollecting also threaten native plants such as wild orchids.
Only about three percent of this ecoregion remains as intact habitat. The forests along the Arkansas River have been almost completely destroyed, as have most of the lowland habitats. The greatest threats are conversion of hardwood forest to pine forest and the construction of vacation homes and resorts. Bear poaching and the taking of plants such as ginseng for the herbal and medicinal trade are also growing problems.
The Southeastern Mixed Forests ecoregion is the most heavily settled ecoregion along the east coast of the United States, with an estimated 99 percent of the natural habitat having been logged and converted to tobacco and peanut crops and other uses. Only small blocks of highly fragmented habitat are left in national forests and rocky outcrops. These fragments face threats from continued logging, conversion to pine plantations, and lack of fire management.
Nearly all of the ecoregion in and around cities such as Toronto, Buffalo, Detroit, and Cleveland has been heavily altered by people. Between the industrial and urban development of these cities and the clearing of land for agriculture, there are no habitat blocks of any significant size left in this ecoregion. Even the tiny fragments that remain are under continued development pressure from urban sprawl and agriculture. And the few patches of habitat that are not being converted are being degraded by pollution and invasion from exotic species.
By the early to mid-19th century, most of the savannas of the Midwest were completely fragmented and nearly entirely destroyed by clearing, plowing, or overgrazing. And what remained in semi-natural habitats suffered invasion by woody shrubs--a consequence of fire suppression. Today, less than five percent of the original ecoregion is intact, and the oak-savanna component is one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world. Recent estimates of remaining savanna fragments testify to the critical status of this ecoregion: Only 0.8 square miles (2 square kilometers) of intact examples of oak-savanna vegetation remain in Wisconsin, or less than 0.01 percent of the original 11,196 square miles (29,000 square kilometers). At least 11 species of herbaceous plants, as well as several species of invertebrates, are threatened. Some of the threats that conservationists are addressing include the desire for homes built in more "natural" areas, lack of general awareness of the globally threatened status of oak-savanna vegetation, fire suppression and misunderstanding about the importance of burning in maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem, and invasion by exotic plants such as honeysuckle and reed canary grass. Grazing of wooded sites by cattle and deer also continues to be a problem.
