Quoting from the 1996 Colliers Ebcyclopedia (no sources given) - "By 1850
nearly 90 percent of the state's total land area was in farmland."

The trend has obviously reversed itself since then.

David Minor

>To whom can help,
>
>I work for the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation in the
>department of lands and forests. I have a question concerning the total
>percent of forested land in New York State befoe the 1900's.
>
>Here is what I have so far:
>
>Forest land cover figures-- forest land is defined as land with at least
>10% stocking of trees of any size, or that formerly had such tree cover
>and is not currently developed for a non-forest use.
>
>Total land area of New York State-- 30.2 million acres
>
>1900-- 7 million acres--appox. 23%
>1925-- 9 million acres--approx. 30%
>1953--15.1 million acres-- approx. 50%
>1968-- 17.3 million acres-- approx. 57%
>1980--18.5 million acres--approx. 61%
>1993-- 18.6 million acres-- approx. 62%
>
>As early as we can go will be greatly appreciated.
>Thank you very much for who ever can assist me.
>
>David


David Minor
Eagles Byte Historical Research
Pittsford, New York
716 264-0423
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includes NYNY, a series of timelines covering New York City and State, from
approximately 1,100,000,000 BC to 1990 AD.





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