Forested Wetland Area (SECAS Goal Trends)

<p style='margin:12pt 0in 4pt;'><strong>Yearly trend</strong></p><p style='margin:0in;'>Overall area of forested wetlands increased by approximately 0.08% per year from 2011-2021. That translates to gain of approximately 181,000 acres per year. Forest wetland area overall also increased for most states.</p><p style='margin:12pt 0in 4pt;'><strong>On track to meet SECAS goal</strong></p><p style='margin:0in;'>No. The increase of about 0.32% every 4 years is not enough to reach the SECAS goal of a 1% increase every 4 years.</p><p style='margin:12pt 0in 4pt;'><strong>Data source</strong></p><p style='margin:0in;'><a href='https://www.mrlc.gov/data' target='_blank' rel='nofollow ugc noopener noreferrer'>National Land Cover Database (NLCD)</a></p><p style='margin:12pt 0in 4pt;'><strong>Confidence in trend</strong></p><p style='margin:0in;'>Low. The trend is not statistically significant and yearly weather changes can have a major impact on classification accuracy.</p><p style='margin:12pt 0in 4pt;'><strong>Interpretation</strong></p><p style='margin:0in;'>This is a coarse indicator of the overall extent of potential habitat in the forested wetland ecosystem. Extensive conservation investments in forested wetlands, policies restricting wetland development, and growing interest from urban communities in water supply protection and reducing flood risks may be causing the increases in forested wetland area. However, forested wetland area is also very sensitive to timber management decisions and yearly weather fluctuations that facilitate or hinder harvest. It is likely that many complicated interacting factors will drive changes in this indicator in the future.</p><p style='margin:12pt 0in 4pt;'><strong>Other information available</strong></p><p style='margin:0in;'>A table of state-level summaries is available in Appendix I of the pdf report: <a href='https://secassoutheast.org/pdf/SECAS-goal-report-2024.pdf' target='_blank' rel='nofollow ugc noopener noreferrer'>https://secassoutheast.org/pdf/SECAS-goal-report-2024.pdf</a>.</p>