The Tennessee River and surrounding mountains. A new US Forest Service grant will pay for a … [+]
The US government is investing $265 million in 17 states to save private forests from development while improving rural economies, mitigating wildfire threats and reconnecting wildlife.
The US Forest Service recently announced the grants in its latest batch of funding from the Forest Legacy Program. The October awards were made through Inflation Reduction Act funds. These new grants will help protect approximately 335,000 acres of vital forestland across 21 projects.
Projects are located in Alabama (Dugdown Mountain Corridor), California (Lake Arrowhead ridge), Hawaii (East Maui Rainforest), Idaho (Stimson Timberland Legacy), Iowa (Searryl’s Cave forest), Massachusetts (Fitchburg Reservoir) , Montana (Great Outdoors). Project), North Carolina (Buffalo Creek), Ohio (Sunfish Creek), Oregon (Tualatin Mountain Forest), South Carolina (Pee Dee River Corridor and Basin), Tennessee (Fayette County), Vermont (Ninevah Forest), Virginia (Albemarle Sound), Washington (Stimson Timberland Legacy and Kitsap Forest) and Wisconsin (Border Lakes, Upper Wisconsin River Legacy Forest and Iron County).
“Landowners face many pressures to convert forests to other uses, and this investment is key to maintaining the economic, social and ecological benefits these forests provide,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Oct. 29. press release about the recent grant round. “Local communities, and our country as a whole, depend on private forests to provide clean water, habitat, recreation and jobs.”
The total allocation for 2024 will amount to nearly $420 million in grants to 47 projects to save 500,000 acres of forest land.
In the past three decades since the program began, the federal government has saved 3.1 million forest acres in 479 completed projects.
The Forest Legacy Program encourages those who own forested land across the country to either sell it outright or sell the development rights to own the land to states or other government entities.
“Using a conservation easement, a legal agreement between a landowner and a nonprofit land trust or government agency, allows the land to remain privately owned while ensuring that its environmental values are preserved.” the Forest Service explains.
Tennessee is getting a new state forest (Ames State Forest) thanks to a $16.9 million federal grant to buy 5,477 acres in Fayette County through a simple (full) buyout. The conservation effort will preserve 30 miles of streams, over 1,500 acres of wetlands and an aquifer that provides drinking water for 2.8 million residents.
Wildlife connectivity extends through many of the recent grants.
For example, in Cleburne County, Alabama, a $19.5 million grant will expand the state’s forested area by nearly 70% through a fee simple purchase of 9,888 acres. The new addition will lengthen “one of the South’s most vital forest corridors of climate resilience,” according to the Forest Service. This new connectivity will allow wildlife to move more freely from the Talladega National Forest to Georgia’s Sheffield Wildlife Management Area in Paulding County.
Montana’s $35.8 million federal grant will help preserve habitat for the endangered Canada lynx.
Montana will receive $35.8 million for the second phase of the Great Outdoors Project that aims to acquire a total of 85,792 acres of primary timber. The land will benefit wildlife, as it is located within a key migration corridor and year-round habitat for grizzly bears, bull trout, white-tailed and mule deer, moose and Canada lynx. The state created lynx conservation zones in critical habitat there in 2015, as the animals are protected under the Endangered Species Act.
A $600,000 grant makes possible a conservation easement to protect nearly 1,000 acres of forest around Oma in Iron County, Wisc. and other lands to connect a pair of county-owned forests in Wisconsin and Michigan. This acquisition will improve habitat for the endangered Wisconsin ferret, which is facing a decline.
A Pine Marten. Wisconsin receives a $600,000 grant that will connect a county forest there … [+]
“Forests provide countless benefits to people and communities, and for nearly 35 years the Forest Legacy Program has enabled us to support states and landowners in their efforts to preserve important forest lands,” Forest Service Chief Randy Moore said in a press statement. .
He noted that the federal government is “protecting tracts of land we never thought we’d have the resources to secure and even more acres of vital forest lands so future generations of Americans can enjoy all the irreplaceable benefits they provide.”
These US government expenditures to preserve forests and reconnect lands are lasting investments for both current and future generations of Americans. Not only do these Forest Legacy Program grants benefit people, they also protect our environment, wilderness areas, and endangered wildlife.
