Land is finite. That observation sits at the heart of much of Colcom Foundation’s environmental analysis, which tracks decades of development, agricultural expansion, and habitat loss against a backdrop of a steadily growing U.S. population.
The data the foundation presents are cumulative and specific. By 1990, roughly 133,000 square miles of U.S. land had been consumed by human-made structures and surfaces roads, parking lots, buildings, and infrastructure of every kind. By 2000, that figure had climbed to approximately 156,000 square miles. By 2020, it exceeded 187,000 square miles. Each decade added more pavement, more construction, and more land permanently removed from the natural world.
What Is Left Behind
Colcom Foundation connects land conversion directly to biodiversity loss. The foundation notes that by 2020, agricultural uses accounted for 52% of the U.S. land base, while only 13% of the country carried any form of conservation protection. The margin left for wildlife continues to narrow as the population grows.
The results are reflected in species data. By 2020, 1,300 species were listed as either endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. In 2021 alone, 23 species were proposed for delisting due to extinction. North American wildlife populations overall declined by 20% since 1970 a period that coincides almost exactly with the doubling of the human population.
The Habitat Equation
Colcom Foundation is particularly pointed about bird populations, noting that North America has lost 2.9 billion birds since 1970. The bird population has declined from ten billion to seven billion. The foundation situates this alongside the broader loss of wild vertebrate populations, which have halved while human numbers doubled.
The foundation’s position is straightforward: habitat cannot be protected at the necessary scale while the population demanding more of that land continues to expand. That belief shapes how Colcom Foundation directs its philanthropic resources. See related link for more information.
More about Colcom Foundation on https://www.colcomfdn.org/