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==Management==
{{main|Forest management|
[[File:World Production Of Selected Forest Products.svg|thumb|World production of selected forest products]]
[[File:Checkerboard forest in Idaho.jpg|alt=Priest River winds through mountains with a checkerboard design of trees to its east|thumb|[[Priest River (Idaho)|Priest River]] winding through Whitetail Butte with lots of [[forestry]] to the east—these lot patterns have existed since the mid-19th century. The white patches reflect areas with younger, smaller trees, where winter snow cover shows up brightly to the astronauts. Dark green-brown squares are parcels]]
Humans have generally decreased the amount of forest worldwide. Anthropogenic factors that can affect forests include logging, [[urban sprawl]], human-caused [[forest fire]]s, [[acid rain]], [[invasive species]], and the [[slash and burn]] practices of swidden agriculture or [[shifting cultivation]]. The loss and re-growth of forests lead to a distinction between two broad types of forest: primary or [[old-growth forest]] and [[secondary forest]]. There are also many natural factors that can cause changes in forests over time, including [[forest fires]], [[Forest pathology#Animals|insects]], [[Forest pathology|diseases]], weather, competition between species, etc. In 1997, the [[World Resources Institute]] recorded that only 20% of the world's original forests remained in large intact tracts of undisturbed forest.<ref>World Resources Institute (1997). [http://www.intactforests.org/pdf.publications/Last.Frontier.Forests.1997.pdf The Last Frontier Forests: Ecosystems and Economies on the Edge] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170813235644/http://www.intactforests.org/pdf.publications/Last.Frontier.Forests.1997.pdf |date=13 August 2017 }}.</ref> More than 75% of these intact forests lie in three countries: the boreal forests of Russia and Canada, and the rainforest of Brazil.
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===United States===
In the United States, most forests have historically been affected by humans to some degree, though in recent years improved [[forestry]] practices have helped regulate or moderate large-scale impacts. The [[United States Forest Service]] estimated a net loss of about {{convert|2|e6ha|abbr=off}} between 1997 and 2020; this estimate includes conversion of forest land to other uses, including urban and suburban development, as well as afforestation and natural reversion of abandoned crop and pasture land to forest. In many areas of the United States, the area of forest is stable or increasing, particularly in many northern states. The opposite problem from flooding has plagued national forests, with loggers complaining that a lack of thinning and proper forest management has resulted in large forest fires.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wildrockiesalliance.org/issues/wildfire/enn.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130509225620/http://www.wildrockiesalliance.org/issues/wildfire/enn.html|archive-date=9 May 2013 |title=Wildfires Ignite Forest Management Debate |publisher=Wildrockiesalliance.org |access-date=3 July 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Emily K.|last=Brock|title=Money Trees: The Douglas Fir and American Forestry, 1900–1944|publisher=Oregon State University Press|year=2015}}</ref>
==See also==
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