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Historical Land Use

Areas in various land uses were obtained from Federal and State agencies. Records of land use before World War II are somewhat spotty, but land use records at the State level have been compiled at irregular intervals since 1945. The most recent of such surveys was conducted in 1992. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service (1996) has constructed a database of areas in major land uses for the period 1945 to 1992 at about 5-year intervals. This database corrects for differences in land use definitions in the various surveys.

We examine shares of each land use by State over this time period. We were also able to examine State-level land use changes between 1982 and 1997 using a different dataset. The 1997 data are the most recent comprehensive measures of land use available.

In addition to these long-run data compiled at the State level, we summarized land use changes for individual counties and for ecological sections between 1982 and 1992. While limited to a shorter period, these data provide a picture of the spatial pattern of land use change.