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USDA: NH is Most Forested State in the Union

Flikr Creative Commons / Robin Presta

A study from the US Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service shows that New Hampshire is the most forested of the 48 contiguous states. According to the USDA study88.9 percent of New Hampshire is covered by trees, beating out neighboring states Maine at 83.1 percent and Vermont at 81.5

The study’s lead author David Nowak says evaluators looked over 80,000 points dropped randomly onto satellite photos from around 2005 to complete the study.

Nowak: In essence I’d say it’s like dropping a penny from an airplane, what would the penny hit first on the way down.

Nowak says New Hampshire might beat out Maine and Vermont because it has less agricultural land, and more mountains, which don’t lend themselves to development.

However, when it comes to urban tree cover, New Hampshire is third, at 64 percent, behind Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Sam Evans-Brown has been working for New Hampshire Public Radio since 2010, when he began as a freelancer. He shifted gears in 2016 and began producing Outside/In, a podcast and radio show about “the natural world and how we use it.” His work has won him several awards, including two regional Edward R. Murrow awards, one national Murrow, and the Overseas Press Club of America's award for best environmental reporting in any medium. He studied Politics and Spanish at Bates College, and before reporting was variously employed as a Spanish teacher, farmer, bicycle mechanic, ski coach, research assistant, a wilderness trip leader and a technical supporter.
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