Woods Hole Research Center

Current Land Cover and Recent Land Cover Change

Like most of the US settled early by colonists, Cape Cod has undergone many dramatic changes in land use (how the land is utilized) and land cover (what occupies the land, regardless of how we may use it).

Early settlers, many from heavily deforested Europe, took full advantage of the forests of Cape Cod, which were probably never very large, for fuelwood, housing and for shipbuilding. But unlike most of the rest of New England, the thin sandy soils of the Cape were highly vulnerable to wind erosion. So much clearing and topsoil loss occurred over the years that by the early 1800s, laws had to be passed to restrict grazing and to promote the planting of beach grasses. Thoreau wrote that by the mid-1800s, Cape Cod was getting its lumber from Maine and its fuelwood from off-Cape.

The mid-1800s constituted the low point for Cape Cod's forest cover though, and by 1951 about 70% of the Cape was forested. Yet that trend has now been reversed and forest loss has once again accelerated, spurred largely by residential and commercial development. These changes are illustrated in the map, Land Cover Conversion on Cape Cod, 1951 - 1990, showing the areas of the Cape that have been altered since 1951, largely through the conversion of forested areas to residential and commercial use.

Land Cover Conversion on Cape Cod 1950 - 1990

It is instructive to look at land use and land cover patterns in tabular form as well. Using the MassGIS* Land Use data layer, we can divide the land cover of Cape Cod into 9 broad categories. Using these classifications, the following table shows that in 1990, about half of the Cape was forested, 30 percent was commercial and residential and 7 percent was in fresh and salt wetlands.

When we compare these 1990 figures with those for 1951 it is evident that dramatic changes have occurred over the last 40 years. During this time, the percentage of commercial and residential land cover has tripled, the amount of forest cover has declined by almost 100 sq. miles (about 25% of the Cape) and the amount of agricultural land has declined by 75% from 20 sq. miles to only 6 sq. miles. It seems clear that population pressure, and residential & commercial construction are the dominant forces driving the current alterations in the land cover and land use of Cape Cod.

Cape Cod Land Cover