---
title: American Farms Aren't Killing American Forests
description: life cycle assessments sustainability c02 carbon
---

[News & Events ](https://usleather.org/news-events)

# [American Farms Aren't Killing American Forests](https://usleather.org/news-events/american-farms-arent-killing-american-forests)

 Written by <https://usleather.org/news-events/author/lhca> | Mar 11, 2026 2:42:00 PM

**The big picture**: A new USDA assessment confirms U.S. agriculture and timber aren't driving deforestation. And the data tells a surprisingly optimistic story.

**What's actually happening: **Forest cover is near a century-long high. Former farmland is *reverting* to forest, thanks to economic shifts and programs like the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays landowners to retire marginal cropland.

**The real culprit: **Urban sprawl. Housing developments, roads, and commercial lots, not farms, are the primary driver of land-use change in America.

**The actual forest threats are ecological:**

- Insects and disease
- Catastrophic wildfire
- Drought and hurricanes
- Invasive species

**Why it matters: **Global deforestation is a genuine crisis, but it's concentrated in tropical regions, from entirely different causes. Mistakenly blaming American farmers misdirects regulation and fractures the coalitions actually needed to fight real forest loss.

**The bottom line**: U.S. trees are doing better than the headlines suggest. Getting the diagnosis right is the only way to write the right prescription.

Read more [here](https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USDA-Assessment-of-Ag-driven-Deforestation.pdf).

 

 

 

 

[View full post](https://usleather.org/news-events/american-farms-arent-killing-american-forests)

```json
{
  "@context" : "http://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : ""
  },
  "dateModified" : "2026-03-11T14:42:26.888Z",
  "datePublished" : "2026-03-11T14:42:00Z",
  "headline" : "American Farms Aren't Killing American Forests",
  "image" : {
    "@type" : "ImageObject",
    "height" : 797,
    "url" : "https://48731838.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/48731838/GettyImages-513053667-5b6a0d7846e0fb002cffab15.jpg",
    "width" : 1200
  },
  "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://usleather.org/news-events/american-farms-arent-killing-american-forests",
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "height" : 60,
      "url" : "/hs/hsstatic/content_shared_assets/static-1.4092/img/default-amp-logo.png",
      "width" : 60
    },
    "name" : "News & Events"
  }
}
```