Historical woodland density of the conterminous United States, 1873

Historical woodland density of the conterminous United States, 1873 is a digital representation of William H. Brewer's 1873 "Map showing five degrees of density. The distribution of woodland within the territory of the United States." This map was included in the statistical atlas of the United States based on the results of the ninth census 1870 (Walker 1874).
The dataset is designed for conducting geospatial analyses and for producing cartographic products over regional to national geographic extents. Historical forestry maps can be used to determine past spatial patterns in order to draw comparisons to current conditions. Refer to Liknes et al. in the Cross-Reference section of this metadata for an example of how the historical woodland density information has been used to evaluate long-term change to forest resources.
Original metadata date 04/25/2013. Minor metadata updates were made on 12/14/2016 and 12/22/2024.