| Housing growth, particularly in rural areas rich in environmental amenities, has been rapid and widespread in the United States since the mid-20 th century and is expected to continue at a high rate in the coming decades. The objective of my dissertation was to analyze the effects of housing growth on different forest types throughout the United States and to examine the relationships among housing density, standing and down dead wood, and timber harvest in forests of the upper Midwest.;We determined that USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis data using altered plot locations could produce reliable results when used in conjunction with housing density and other spatially explicit datasets. Using these data, we found that nearly one-fifth of all U.S. forest plots were located in areas where housing density exceeds the threshold beyond which land is no longer classified as rural, as were plots of many rare forest types. Housing densities associated with forest plots in state and local government ownership represented an intermediate level between those of federally owned public lands and those in private ownership, suggesting that use of a dichotomy between these ownership categories is overly simplistic.;Housing density, along with ecological section, ownership, stand age, live basal area and forest type were all important in predicting the abundance of snags, maximum DBH of snags, fine woody debris, and both the length and the diameter of coarse woody debris. However, these relationships were complex and patterns were not consistent among states, highlighting the need to exercise caution when generalizing even statewide studies to the regional scale. Housing density did not strongly affect the likelihood or volume of timber harvest, which was more strongly influenced by land ownership and stand age.;These results highlight the broad extent to which forests in the conterminous United States have already been impacted by housing growth and the degree to which they are likely to be further affected in the next twenty years. Taken together, my dissertation provides forest managers and ecologists across the U.S. with a better understanding of the human dimension of forest management and land use change. |
