Last week Conservation Partners released a report titled “The Disappearing West,” which maps the amount of land developed across the eleven states of the American West from 2001-2011. According to the report, natural lands are developed at a rate of one acre every 2.5 minutes, or 432 square miles per year. California is unsurprisingly developing the fastest. More surprising is that Wyoming — the least populated of the eleven western states — is not far behind, due to rapidly expanding energy development in the state.
The map is worth exploring, if only to see how your favorite places might have changed during the first decade of the 21st Century.