Native Americans have been present in the Appalachians and Ozarks for more than 10,000 years and possibly as long as 14,000 years. Their impact upon the forests was minimal, but the arrival of European settlers in the 1700s ushered in an era in which forests were increasingly disturbed. Forests were first cleared for agriculture and to obtain wood for fuelwood and building homes. Later, systematic logging of large areas of forest occurred, sometimes in conjunction with mining operations. More recently, forests have given way to urban areas, housing developments, roads, rights-of-way, and industrially developed sites. Nevertheless, significant portions of both the Appalachians and Ozarks are forested, albeit with a past history of some degree of disturbance in almost every instance.