Report: Housing poses threat to private forests

From The Associated Press, Wednesday, August 11, 2010:

A U.S. Forest Service report says housing development on privately owned forest land needs to be added to the list of threats to the nation’s forests.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Wednesday in a teleconference from Washington, D.C., that he hopes talks the Obama administration is holding with landowners will produce recommendations for ways to make preservation of private forest land more profitable, reducing the pressure to sell it for development.

The report says 57 million acres of private forest land face a serious threat from housing development in the next 20 years.

It says development adds to the threats from insects, wildfire and air pollution.