Also when i would go to any national forest i would realize after traveling different ones that they were all lumber crops. They were not really protected forests they were just crops of lumber that were regularly harvested. The trunks of the ancient trees that were untouched before people came you would see and they would make the new forests look tiny they looked 100's of years old but couldn't be found anymore.
About 33 percent of the United States, or ~750 million acres is forested.
About 52 million acres of this forestland is reserved for non-timber uses and managed by public agencies as parks, wilderness or similar areas.
About 191 million acres are not productive for growing wood for harvest, but are of used for watershed protection, wildlife habitat, and other uses (most of these forests are in land that is too steep/remote for commercial logging).
More importantly, forest growth nationally has exceeded harvest since the 1940s such that by 1997 forest growth exceeded harvest by 42 percent and the volume of forest growth was 380% greater than it had been in 1920.
And these aren't just skinny trees, since nationally, the average standing wood volume per acre in US forests is about one-third greater today than in it was in 1952 and in the East the average volume per acre has almost doubled.
So even though US wood products consumption has increased by 50% since 1965, from 374 to 563 million cubic meters annually, the amount of our forests has also increased.
Then there are the even more massive Canadian Forests.
Of the ~1,030 million acres of forests in Canada, ~578 million acres are considered "commercial forests" in that they are capable of producing commercial species of trees as well as other non-timber benefits.
BUT, much less than half of these forests are actually used for timber production.
In Canada, 94% of the forests are publicly owned. The provinces have ownership and legislative authority over 71% percent of them and the federal government has 23% of Canada's total forest land, most of it in two of the three territories in the north.
So, with ~1.8 Billion acres of forest in the US and Canada, we have no shortage of forests and these forests are filled with deer and other wildlife.
So very clearly we are managing our forests in North America quite well, and they are GROWING, not shrinking.
I couldn't recall the last animal to go extinct in North America so I looked it up:
For the last 20 years we know of these in North America:
2007 Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit, only ever found in 4 counties of Washington state
1994 Hadley Lake Limnetic Stickleback, only ever found in one Lake on Lasqueti Island in British Columbia
1992 Vancouver Island Wolverine, only ever found on Vancouver Island, again in British Columbia
(if you know of others within the last 20 years, list them)
Most extinctions we have now are like this, usually a sub-specie (for instance Sticklebacks are not extinct by any means), which has a very limited range to begin with and something happens (often a new predator) that causes this limited local extinction.
On a global basis, for the 21st century we have these 6 listed (three are actually only possibly extinct)
Pipistrellus murrayi - Christmas Island Pipistrelle
Psephurus gladius - Chinese Paddlefish
Lipotes vexillifer -Yangtze River Dolphin
Melamprosops phaeosoma - Po'o-uli
Partula labrusca -Vine Raiatea Tree Snail
Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica - Pyrenean Ibex
But again we are usually dealing with sub-species that only ever occurred in very limited range. (again if you know of others please list them)
On the other hand, these animals have come off the extinct list because they were rediscovered:
Bavarian Pine Vole Microtus bavaricus. It had not been seen since 1962, but a small population was found on the German-Austrian border in 2000.
New Zealand Storm Petrel Oceanites maorianus, a seabird rediscovered in 2003;
Miller Lake Lamprey Lampetra minima, a fish living in a small area in Oregon, United States, thought to have become Extinct in 1958, but it was refound during surveys in the 1990s;
Gulella thomasseti, an endemic snail from the Seychelles rediscovered in August 2002;
Fabulous Green Sphinx Moth Tinostoma smaragditis from Hawaii, rediscovered in 1997
Pitt Island Longhorn Beetle Xylotoles costatus, rediscovered on South East Island in the Chatham Islands group;
Lord Howe Island Stick Insect Dryococelus australis, rediscovered in 2001 on Balls Pyramid, a rocky outcrop 23km from Lord Howe Island in Australia;
Then there are ~50 species that are extinct in the wild, but are still alive in captivity, some of these will be reintroduced.
Arthur
We would really like it if you could take some of them off our hands. 
