Tennessee's forest land area was stable 1999-2005 but early successional forest area declined

A new analysis of the most recent (2005) annualized moving average data for Tennessee indicates that the area of forest land in the State remained stable between 1999 and 2005. Although trends in forest land area vary from region to region within the State, Tennessee neither lost nor gained forest land between 1999 and 2005. However, Tennessee had more than 2.5 times as much early successional forest area in the early 1970s as in 2005. The decline in early successional forest area in Tennessee is a matter of concern.