© The Nature Conservancy View/Download: Please click on the link(s) below and you will be given the choice of opening or saving to disk. JPG Download (JPG, 489 KB, Created January 01, 1999)

Land ownership varies across the Ecoregion but is generally dominated by a mix of public and large corporate forest ownership with a smaller mixture of small farms and woodlots. This ownership pattern is not evenly distributed. Almost half of the parts of Quibec, New Brunswick and New York that lie within the ecoregion are under state or provincial ownership. One third of Nova Scotia lies in Crown land. In Vermont and New Hampshire the Federal government owns over 1 million acres in the Green and White Mt National Forests. However, only 8% of Prince Edward Island and 6% of Maine are in public ownership. In Maine the ownership in the northern part of the state is primarily large industrial and non-industrial forest products companies. In the southern parts of the Ecoregion and Nova Scotia more small farms and woodlots occur. Prince Edward Island is not only Canadas smallest province but is also its most densely populated. The majority (91%) of the land is in small private ownerships and about half is under cultivation.

Nearly 13 million acres of land are in commercial forestry, almost 40% of the Ecoregion. The forest industry is by far the largest employer. Recreation and tourism is the second most important source of employment. Because of the interstate highway system, about 70 million people live within an 8-hour drive of the Ecoregion. This establishes the Northern Forest region as a premier natural recreation area for almost 30% of the population of the United States, as well as for the population of the major urban centers of southeastern Canada, with extensive opportunities for camping, hunting, fishing, hiking, canoeing, and skiing, and just plain getting away to nature (Trombulak, 1994). Agriculture plays a smaller role in the economy of the region, but still occupies approximately 12% of the Ecoregion. The patterns of intensive forestry, agriculture, development, lakes and vegetative cover are clearly shown in Land Cover Map