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Distribution of Major Southern Bottomland Hardwood Forests.

The acreage of bottomland hardwood forests in the United States has decreased steadily since about 1960.
The most dramatic losses are in the Lower Mississippi River Valley which has decreased from roughly 24 million
acres in 1800 to about 5 million acres at present. While the trend has been reversed largely as a result of the USDA Conservation Reserve Program and the USDA Wetlands Reserve Program, the forested wetlands
of the Ark-La-Miss are under continued threat of conversion to commercial, residential and industrial use
and remain vulnerable to changes in the Swampbuster provision of the Farm Bill and
court rulings of the Clean Water Act.

Redrawn from USDA Agricultural Handbook No. 181
 

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