Understanding the drivers of forest transitions is relevant to inform effective forest conservation. We investigate pathways of forest transitions in the United States (1920-2010), France (1850-2010), and Austria (1830-2010). By combining evidence from forest inventories with the forest model CRAFT, we first quantify how change in forest area ( ΔA ), maximum biomass density ( ΔBd max ), and actual biomass as fraction of maximum biomass ( ΔF max ) shaped forest dynamics. Second, to investigate the connections between forest change and societal resource use, or social metabolism, we quantify the importance of selected proximate and underlying socio-metabolic drivers. We find that agricultural intensification and reduced forest grazing correlated most with positive ΔA and ΔBd max . By contrast, change in biomass imports or harvest did not explain forest change. Our findings highlight the importance of forest growth conditions in explaining long-term forest dynamics, and demonstrate the distinct ways in which resource use drove forest change.