Conservation of Biological Diversity

People enjoy a variety of ecosystem services, or benefits, from forests, including water purification, recreation, income from tourism, timber products, and the cultural and economic benefits from hunting, fishing, and gathering (Shvidenko et al. 2005). Across the Northern United States, growing human populations will place increased service demands on forests for the foreseeable future. The type, magnitude, and stability of future services from northern forests will depend in part on the level of biological diversity in those forests.