The United States Lost 4.22 Million Acres of Forest in 2021—but the Real Story Is More Complicated
In a single year, satellite data recorded the loss of approximately 4.22 million acres of natural forest tree cover across the United States.
That sounds extraordinary because it is.
The figure corresponds to about 1.71 million hectares of natural forest loss detected in 2021, with Global Forest Watch data associating that disturbance with roughly 775 million metric tonnes of carbon-dioxide-equivalent emissions. The figure has since been widely repeated in discussions about American deforestation.
But there is an important correction that radically changes how the statistic should be interpreted:
4.22 million acres of tree-cover loss does not mean the United States permanently deforested 4.22 million acres in 2021.
Global Forest Watch explicitly warns that tree-cover loss and deforestation are not the same thing. Satellite-detected loss can result from permanent conversion to development or agriculture, but it can also come from wildfires, timber harvesting, storms, insects, disease, or other disturbances after which trees may eventually return.
That distinction is especially important in the United States, where wildfire and managed timber harvesting account for substantial amounts of annual tree-cover disturbance.
So the viral statistic is rooted in real data.
The interpretation often attached to it is much too simple.
And the true story of America's forests—covering climate change, wildfire, logging, urban expansion, carbon storage, clean water, biodiversity and a forest-products economy supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs—is actually far more important.
How Much Forest Does the United States Have?
The United States remains one of the world's most heavily forested large countries.
The U.S. Forest Service's Forest Atlas of the United States reports more than 765 million acres of planted and natural forest land, along with another 58 million acres of woodland.
Together, that is roughly 823 million acres of forest and woodland.
A separate Forest Service sustainability assessment similarly places U.S. forest land at about 765 million acres and notes that forest area has remained relatively stable nationally over the past century, although important regional changes are hidden within that national total.
So saying that America has “nearly 800 million acres of forest” is reasonably accurate as a broad description.
But it depends on the definition.
Forest land alone: about 765 million acres.
Forest land plus woodland: about 823 million acres.
Together, forests and woodlands cover more than one-third of the American landscape.
That enormous area provides far more than timber.
America's Forests Are Part of the Nation's Infrastructure
It is easy to think of forests primarily as wilderness or recreation areas.
Ecologically, they function more like enormous pieces of natural infrastructure.
They:
- store carbon,
- regulate water,
- reduce erosion,
- provide habitat,
- influence local temperature,
- support fisheries,
- protect soils,
- supply timber and other products,
- and provide recreation.
The Forest Service estimates that approximately half of U.S. freshwater resources originate on forested lands. In the contiguous United States, forests make up about 29% of the land but contribute roughly 46% of surface-water supply.
That means losing or degrading forests is not simply a question of having fewer trees.
It can become a water issue.
A wildlife issue.
A fire issue.
A rural-economy issue.
And, increasingly, a climate issue.
So What Exactly Happened in 2021?
The widely circulated number originates from satellite-based forest monitoring.
About 1.71 million hectares, equivalent to roughly 4.22 million acres, of U.S. natural forest tree cover was recorded as lost during 2021.
Associated carbon emissions were estimated at about 775 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent.
That is a huge disturbance.
But interpreting every one of those acres as “deforested” creates a misleading picture.
Tree-Cover Loss Is Not Necessarily Permanent
Global Forest Watch defines tree-cover loss as the disappearance of woody vegetation taller than a specified threshold detected by satellite.
That disappearance could result from:
Wildfire
Trees burn or die, but forest may regenerate.
Timber harvesting
Trees are removed deliberately and the land may later be replanted or regenerate naturally.
Hurricane or wind damage
A forest canopy can disappear without the land being converted permanently.
Insects or disease
Large areas of trees can die while remaining legally and ecologically classified as forest.
Permanent land conversion
Forests can be cleared for housing, roads, commercial development, mining or agriculture.
Only the last category clearly represents the kind of permanent deforestation most people imagine when hearing that word.
WRI stresses that tree-cover-loss datasets include both permanent deforestation and temporary disturbances.
That does not make temporary forest loss harmless.
But it makes it biologically different.
Wildfires Are a Huge Part of the American Story
In countries such as Brazil, large-scale permanent agricultural conversion is a dominant driver of forest destruction.
The United States has a different disturbance profile.
Wildfire is especially important.
Globally, 2021 was one of the worst forest-fire years in the satellite record, with approximately 9.3 million hectares of tree cover lost to fire worldwide.
The western United States has experienced severe fire seasons in recent decades, and new Forest Service research notes that larger wildfires and high-severity burns are increasingly driving forest loss across western North America.
Climate change contributes by increasing conditions conducive to extreme fires:
higher temperatures,
longer dry periods,
drier vegetation,
and more extreme fire weather.
But climate is not the only factor.
More than a century of fire suppression has also allowed fuels to accumulate in some historically fire-adapted forests.
Development in the wildland-urban interface places more people and property near flammable landscapes.
Human ignitions start many fires.
Forest density, drought, insects and local management all matter.
The result is not simply “forests being cut down.”
Some forests are being burned faster and more severely than they can recover.
Not Every Wildfire Is Deforestation
Fire is also a natural ecological process.
Many American forests evolved with recurring burns.
Some tree species depend on fire.
Low- and moderate-severity fire can:
clear accumulated fuels,
recycle nutrients,
maintain open forest structure,
and create habitat diversity.
The problem is not fire itself.
The problem comes when fires become sufficiently frequent or severe that mature forest fails to regenerate and transitions into shrubland, grassland or another ecosystem.
That can turn temporary tree-cover loss into long-term forest loss.
This is one reason modern forest conservation increasingly involves both protecting forests and managing fire intelligently, rather than simply trying to exclude every flame.
Logging Is Not Automatically the Same as Deforestation Either
Another frequent misunderstanding surrounds timber harvesting.
Logging removes trees.
Deforestation converts forest to another long-term land use.
Those are not automatically identical.
A managed forest can be harvested and regrown repeatedly while remaining forest land.
That does not mean all logging is environmentally equivalent.
The ecological effects depend enormously on:
harvest intensity,
rotation length,
tree species,
soil disturbance,
road construction,
whether old-growth forest is involved,
how much habitat remains,
and whether the forest successfully regenerates.
Clearcutting a plantation that will immediately be replanted is biologically very different from removing an ancient forest and converting the land into housing.
Yet both can appear as tree-cover loss in satellite statistics.
This is precisely why the phrase “4.22 million acres of forest disappeared” requires context.
Permanent Forest Conversion Still Matters
None of these nuances mean permanent deforestation is unimportant in the United States.
It absolutely occurs.
Urban growth is one major driver.
The latest World Resources Institute forest-loss analysis estimates that the United States lost more than 1.7 million hectares of tree cover to urban expansion and built infrastructure between 2001 and 2025, more than any other country in the dataset for that particular driver.
Roads.
Housing developments.
Commercial centers.
Industrial sites.
Suburban expansion.
Once forest becomes pavement, buildings or other infrastructure, natural regeneration becomes much less likely.
And unlike a harvested forest, a shopping center does not grow another tree canopy after 30 years.
That is genuine land conversion.
The 775 Million Tonnes of CO₂ Figure Also Needs Context
The carbon number sounds almost unbelievable.
Approximately 775 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent have been associated with the 2021 natural-forest-loss figure in Global Forest Watch-derived data.
But this should not be interpreted as meaning that 775 million tonnes instantly poured directly into the atmosphere the moment every tree disappeared.
Forest-carbon accounting is more complicated.
Trees store carbon in:
trunks,
branches,
leaves,
roots,
deadwood,
and soils.
Disturbance changes those carbon stocks differently depending on what happens afterward.
A severe wildfire can rapidly release large quantities of carbon while leaving additional dead material to decompose later.
Harvested wood may transfer some carbon into buildings, furniture or other products where it remains stored for years.
Regrowing forests can remove carbon from the atmosphere again.
Permanent conversion prevents much of that forest carbon from being rebuilt.
So emissions estimates associated with tree-cover loss are useful indicators of climate consequences, but they should not be confused with a simple measurement of smokestack emissions.
U.S. Forests Are Still a Major Carbon Sink
There is another fact that often disappears from discussions of American forest loss.
Despite disturbances and land conversion, the U.S. land sector continues to remove large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
EPA reports that in 2022, the U.S. Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry sector was a net carbon sink equivalent to about 13% of total national greenhouse-gas emissions.
That is enormously important.
Forests are doing climate work continuously.
Trees take CO₂ from the atmosphere through photosynthesis.
Some of that carbon enters wood.
Some moves below ground.
Some eventually becomes long-lived soil carbon.
Growing forests can therefore partially offset emissions from fossil fuels.
But EPA also reports a concerning trend:
U.S. land-sector carbon sequestration declined by roughly 11% between 1990 and 2022, primarily because forests are accumulating carbon more slowly and urbanization is creating additional emissions.
So America still possesses a powerful carbon sink—
but there is no guarantee that sink will remain equally strong forever.
Are Forests Responsible for Fighting Climate Change?
Yes, but with an important caveat.
Forests are enormously valuable carbon sinks.
They cannot substitute for reducing fossil-fuel emissions.
Even an ambitious tree-planting program cannot indefinitely absorb all the carbon released by burning coal, oil and natural gas.
Forests have limited land area.
Trees eventually mature.
Wildfire can return stored carbon to the atmosphere.
Drought can reduce growth.
Insects can kill trees.
Climate change itself can weaken forest carbon storage.
The strongest climate strategy therefore involves both:
rapidly cutting fossil-fuel emissions
and
protecting and restoring natural carbon sinks.
It is not one or the other.
Does Deforestation Cause 15% of Global Greenhouse-Gas Emissions?
This is another claim that deserves correction.
Saying simply:
“Deforestation causes 15% of all human greenhouse-gas emissions”
is too broad.
The IPCC estimates that agriculture, forestry and other land use collectively accounted for approximately 13–21% of global anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions during 2010–2019.
A separate IPCC assessment found that land-use change—including deforestation, peatland degradation and related processes—has accounted for roughly 15% of global anthropogenic emissions under some accounting approaches.
But that is not identical to saying deforestation alone always contributes exactly 15%.
Different studies use:
different periods,
different gases,
gross versus net accounting,
different land-use definitions,
and different treatment of forest regrowth.
The defensible conclusion is:
Deforestation and other land-use changes remain a major contributor to global climate change, while forests simultaneously remove enormous quantities of carbon from the atmosphere.
The Biodiversity Cost Can Be Greater Than the Acreage Suggests
An acre is not simply an acre.
Losing an acre of a young plantation is not ecologically equivalent to losing an acre of centuries-old forest.
Old and mature forests may contain:
large trees,
deadwood,
tree cavities,
complex canopies,
rare fungi,
specialized insects,
birds,
mammals,
and soil communities
that take decades or centuries to develop.
A newly planted forest may contain trees but lack much of that biological complexity.
That means “tree cover restored” does not automatically mean “ecosystem restored.”
The Forest Service reports that the percentage of assessed forest-associated species considered at risk of extinction increased from 28% to 31% over roughly a decade, with habitat conversion, invasive species and other pressures among the contributing concerns.
Forest conservation therefore cannot be reduced to maintaining a national acreage number.
Forest quality matters as much as quantity.
Forests Protect America's Water
One of the strongest arguments for forest conservation has almost nothing to do with carbon.
It is water.
Forest soils absorb rainfall.
Roots stabilize soil.
Vegetation slows runoff.
Forest watersheds can filter sediments and influence both water quality and streamflow.
Approximately half of America's freshwater resources originate on forested lands, according to the Forest Service.
This means upstream forest loss can eventually become a downstream problem involving:
drinking-water treatment,
flooding,
sedimentation,
fish habitat,
reservoir capacity,
and municipal water costs.
Protecting forests can therefore be cheaper than replacing their ecological services with engineered infrastructure.
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What About the Claim That Forests Support 106,000 Jobs?
That particular number is misleading without defining what counts as a “forestry job.”
BLS data show that the forestry and logging industry employed approximately 47,200 people in 2024.
Separately, the broader category called support activities for agriculture and forestry employed approximately 106,200 people—but that category includes agricultural support work and therefore cannot accurately be described simply as “106,000 forestry jobs.”
Looking more broadly changes the picture dramatically.
The U.S. Forest Service says the forest-products industry employs approximately 950,000 people and generates about $288 billion annually.
Those workers include people involved in:
logging,
sawmills,
paper,
wood products,
manufacturing,
transport,
engineering,
and related activities.
So forests absolutely support a major American economy.
The 106,000 figure simply does not capture it correctly.
Conservation and Forestry Do Not Have to Be Enemies
Debates about forests sometimes become unnecessarily binary.
One side says:
Never cut trees.
Another says:
Forests are renewable, so harvesting is not a problem.
Real forest science is more complicated.
Wood can be a renewable resource when forests regenerate successfully.
Timber can store carbon in buildings.
Managed harvest can provide rural employment.
Thinning and prescribed fire can reduce hazardous fuel in some ecosystems.
At the same time:
old forests may deserve strong protection,
poorly planned harvest can damage habitat and water,
short rotations can reduce carbon storage,
roads can fragment ecosystems,
and forest conversion can permanently eliminate ecological functions.
Good forest policy therefore asks:
Which forest?
Which trees?
For what purpose?
Using what harvesting method?
And what happens afterward?
What Should Governments Do?
The strongest strategy is not simply “plant more trees.”
Protecting existing forests is often more effective than trying to recreate them later.
Protect high-carbon and high-biodiversity forests
Mature, old-growth, riparian and ecologically rare forests should receive particularly careful protection.
A 200-year-old forest cannot simply be replaced by planting seedlings.
Limit permanent conversion
Urban planning can reduce unnecessary fragmentation and direct development toward already disturbed land.
Permanent conversion deserves greater attention than temporary harvest when the goal is preventing true deforestation.
Reduce catastrophic wildfire risk
In appropriate fire-adapted ecosystems, this can involve:
prescribed burning,
strategic thinning,
Indigenous fire stewardship,
removing hazardous fuels,
and allowing some beneficial wildfires to perform ecological functions safely.
The Forest Service emphasizes that fire can itself improve resilience when managed under appropriate conditions.
Protect forest watersheds
Land-management decisions should account explicitly for drinking-water value rather than treating water as an accidental side benefit of forests.
Improve carbon monitoring
Satellite observations should be combined with on-the-ground forest inventories so policymakers can distinguish:
temporary disturbance,
harvest,
wildfire,
forest degradation,
and permanent conversion.
Encourage restoration where forests have genuinely disappeared
Restoration should prioritize ecological function and native biodiversity rather than simply maximizing the number of trees planted.
What Should Businesses Do?
Companies influence forests both directly and through supply chains.
A company may never operate a chainsaw yet still purchase:
timber,
paper,
packaging,
beef,
soy,
palm oil,
rubber,
or other commodities linked globally to forest conversion.
WRI research found that just seven agricultural commodities accounted for a substantial share of global tree-cover loss associated with commodity expansion.
Businesses can therefore:
trace raw materials,
eliminate illegal forest conversion,
use credible forest-certification systems,
increase recycled-fiber use where appropriate,
protect high-conservation-value forests,
and disclose land-use impacts.
Most importantly, companies should distinguish sustainable harvesting from permanent ecosystem destruction rather than using vague claims such as “renewable” to treat every form of logging as equivalent.
What Can Individuals Actually Do?
Individual action cannot substitute for government policy or industrial reform.
But individuals still influence land use through consumption, voting and community decisions.
The most meaningful actions are relatively ordinary.
Reduce unnecessary paper and wood waste.
Choose durable rather than disposable products.
Recycle paper and wood where systems support it.
Support credible sustainable-forestry practices.
Support conservation organizations protecting important habitats.
Participate in local planning when forests are proposed for conversion.
Plant native trees where ecologically appropriate.
Support wildfire-resilience measures grounded in science rather than slogans.
And perhaps most importantly:
Do not treat every tree planted as equal to every forest destroyed.
Trees are valuable.
Forests are ecosystems.
Those are related ideas, but they are not interchangeable.
The United States Is Not Simply “Running Out of Forest”
That may be the biggest misconception created by the 4.22-million-acre statistic.
At the national level, U.S. forest area has been remarkably stable over the long term.
The country still contains roughly 765 million acres of forest land, and more than 823 million acres when woodlands are included.
But stability in the national total can hide enormous local change.
Imagine losing an old forest near a growing city and gaining young forest on abandoned agricultural land hundreds of miles away.
The national acreage could remain almost identical.
Ecologically, however, the two landscapes are not necessarily equivalent.
The species are different.
The carbon stocks are different.
The water functions are different.
The ages are different.
The recreational and cultural values are different.
That is why modern forest science increasingly asks not only:
How many acres of forest exist?
but:
What kind of forest?
Where?
How old?
How healthy?
And is it likely to remain forest?
Climate Change Makes the Problem Harder
Historically, conservation could focus primarily on direct human actions:
logging,
agriculture,
development,
roads.
Now the climate itself is changing forest conditions.
Hotter temperatures can increase drought stress.
Drought weakens trees.
Weak trees may become more vulnerable to insects and disease.
Dry vegetation increases fire risk.
Severe fires can reduce regeneration.
Young forests may struggle under climates different from those in which the previous forest developed.
This creates feedback loops.
Climate change damages forests.
Damaged forests may store less carbon.
Reduced carbon storage leaves more CO₂ in the atmosphere.
More warming follows.
Protecting forests therefore increasingly means helping them adapt, not simply drawing lines around them on a map.
Why the 2021 Statistic Still Matters
After all these corrections, it might be tempting to dismiss the original figure.
That would also be a mistake.
4.22 million acres of natural forest tree-cover disturbance in one year is enormous.
Even when forests regenerate, disturbance can temporarily release carbon, alter habitat and change watershed conditions.
Repeated high-severity fire may prevent recovery.
Some logged forests may take decades to rebuild carbon stocks.
Some disturbed areas become permanently developed.
And some old ecosystems cannot be recreated on meaningful human timescales.
The statistic therefore deserves attention.
It simply deserves the correct label.
Not:
“America permanently deforested 4.22 million acres.”
But:
“Satellite data recorded about 4.22 million acres of U.S. natural forest tree-cover loss in 2021, driven by a mixture of disturbances that include fire, harvest and permanent land conversion.”
That sentence is less sensational.
It is also much more scientifically useful.
The Bigger Climate Lesson
Forests are among humanity's most powerful natural allies.
The IPCC estimates that managed and natural terrestrial ecosystems collectively absorb around one-third of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions, even while land-use activities simultaneously release greenhouse gases.
That is an extraordinary service being provided largely without machines, factories or pipelines.
Sunlight reaches leaves.
Plants absorb CO₂.
Carbon becomes wood, roots and soil.
Water moves through landscapes.
Animals find habitat.
People drink from forested watersheds.
Communities make livelihoods from timber and recreation.
The challenge is not choosing between humanity and forests.
The challenge is managing forests so that human use does not destroy the ecological systems on which humans themselves depend.
The Bottom Line
The viral claim is based on real data but needs important corrections.
True:
In 2021, satellite-based data recorded about 1.71 million hectares—approximately 4.22 million acres—of natural forest tree-cover loss in the United States, associated with roughly 775 million tonnes of CO₂-equivalent emissions in Global Forest Watch-derived estimates.
Misleading:
That does not mean all 4.22 million acres were permanently deforested. Tree-cover loss includes wildfire, timber harvest and other temporary disturbances as well as permanent conversion.
Broadly true:
America has roughly 765 million acres of forest land, or about 823 million acres when woodland is included, covering more than one-third of the country.
Needs correction:
The often-repeated 106,000 forestry-jobs figure is not a good representation of the sector. BLS counted about 47,200 jobs in forestry and logging in 2024, while the much broader U.S. forest-products industry supports roughly 950,000 jobs.
Also needs correction:
“Deforestation causes 15% of global greenhouse-gas emissions” is too simplistic. Land-use change including deforestation and peatland degradation has been estimated around that range in some IPCC accounting, while the wider agriculture, forestry and other land-use sector contributed roughly 13–21% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gases during 2010–2019.
The real threat is therefore more complex than a single alarming acreage number.
America is not simply watching all of its forests disappear.
It is confronting something subtler:
old forests converted to development, forests repeatedly disturbed by increasingly severe fires, changing climate conditions, pressure from timber and infrastructure, declining carbon-sequestration rates, fragmented wildlife habitat—and the challenge of maintaining healthy forests while still supporting communities and a major renewable-material economy.
Protecting forests does not mean freezing every acre in time.
It means ensuring that after fire, harvest and human use, forests remain forests—and that the irreplaceable ones are not lost at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did the United States really lose 4.22 million acres of forest in 2021?
Approximately 4.22 million acres of natural forest tree cover were recorded as lost. However, this includes temporary disturbances such as fire and harvesting, so it should not be described as 4.22 million acres of permanent deforestation.
How many hectares is 4.22 million acres?
Approximately 1.71 million hectares.
Did that forest loss really cause 775 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions?
Global Forest Watch-derived estimates associate the 2021 loss with roughly 775 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent. It is a modeled carbon impact rather than a simple measurement of emissions released immediately when trees disappeared.
Is tree-cover loss the same as deforestation?
No. Tree-cover loss includes fires, logging, storms, pests and other temporary disturbances. Deforestation normally refers to long-term or permanent conversion of forest to another land use.
How much U.S. land is forested?
The Forest Service reports about 765 million acres of forest land, plus approximately 58 million acres of woodland.
Are U.S. forests shrinking overall?
National forest area has remained relatively stable over the long term, although significant losses and gains occur regionally. National totals can therefore hide important local changes.
What causes forest loss in the United States?
Major drivers include wildfire, timber harvesting, urban expansion, roads and infrastructure, insects, disease, storms and permanent land conversion.
Is logging always deforestation?
No. Forest that is harvested and successfully regenerated remains forest land. Permanent conversion to agriculture, housing or infrastructure is different.
Are wildfires considered deforestation?
Usually not automatically. Many forests regenerate after fire. However, repeated or severe fires can cause long-term ecosystem conversion when trees fail to return.
Does climate change increase forest fires?
Climate change is contributing to hotter and drier conditions that can increase the likelihood and severity of damaging forest fires, although fire management, human ignition, vegetation and other factors also matter.
Do U.S. forests absorb carbon dioxide?
Yes. EPA reports that the U.S. land-use and forestry sector remained a net carbon sink, offsetting an amount equivalent to approximately 13% of national greenhouse-gas emissions in 2022.
Is America's forest carbon sink weakening?
EPA reports that land-sector carbon sequestration declined about 11% from 1990 to 2022, largely because forests are accumulating carbon more slowly and urbanization has increased emissions.
Do forests provide drinking water?
Yes. Roughly half of U.S. freshwater resources originate on forested lands, according to the Forest Service.
How many Americans work in forestry?
The answer depends on the definition. BLS reported about 47,200 jobs in the forestry-and-logging industry in 2024, while the much broader forest-products industry employs approximately 950,000 people.
Does deforestation really cause 15% of global emissions?
Not precisely as stated. Land-use change including deforestation contributes a substantial share of global emissions, while the IPCC estimates the wider agriculture, forestry and other land-use sector at roughly 13–21% of anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions during 2010–2019.
Why not simply plant trees to replace forests that are cut?
A plantation of young trees does not immediately replace the carbon, biodiversity, soil structure and habitat found in an old natural forest.
Are old-growth forests more valuable than young forests?
They can be especially important for carbon storage, biodiversity, complex habitat and ecological continuity, although young forests also provide important habitat and rapidly absorb carbon while growing.
What is the biggest permanent cause of U.S. forest loss?
Urban expansion and infrastructure are important permanent drivers. WRI estimates the United States lost more than 1.7 million hectares of tree cover to urban and built-infrastructure expansion between 2001 and 2025.
Should all logging stop to protect the climate?
Science does not support treating every harvest identically. Sustainable forestry can provide renewable materials and maintain forest cover, while harvesting old or ecologically sensitive forests can have much greater consequences.
What is the most effective forest-protection strategy?
A strong approach combines protection of irreplaceable forests, prevention of permanent conversion, sustainable management of working forests, scientifically informed wildfire management and restoration of degraded landscapes.
What can ordinary people do?
Reducing waste, using wood and paper efficiently, supporting credible sustainable forestry, protecting local forests, planting appropriate native trees and supporting effective conservation and climate policy can all contribute.
What is the most important lesson from the 4.22-million-acre statistic?
The United States experienced enormous forest disturbance in 2021—but forest disturbance, tree-cover loss and permanent deforestation are not interchangeable terms.
Understanding that distinction does not make forest loss less important.
It helps us identify which losses can recover—
and which ones may be gone for generations.
