In Vermont yesterday, US Forest Service Chief Gail Kimbell announced the award of $50 million in grants, including $1.8 million for the Eden Forest in Vermont, to permanently protect twenty-four working forests across twenty-one states, through the Forest Legacy Program. This program permanently protects important private forestland threatened by conversion.
The Forest Legacy Program conserves open space which allows us to respond to climate change, improves water quality and flows and connects children to nature, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The strength of the Forest Legacy Program is the cooperation between States, partners and private landowners all working together to protect environmentally and economically important forests that are threatened by conversion.
Examples of 2009 projects include: forest essential for wildlife and recreation in Maine; pine ecosystem critical for threatened and endangered species in Arkansas and working forests that support rural jobs in Oregon.
The Forest Legacy Program promotes voluntary land conservation by operating on the principle of willing buyer, willing seller. Private forest landowners are facing increasing real estate prices, property taxes and development pressure, which result in conversion of forests to other land uses. The Forest Legacy Program focuses on conserving working forests those that provide clean water, forest products, fish and wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities.
The 5,727-acre Eden Forest has been used for timber for the last 50 years and contains bear and bobcat habitat, among other species. The town of Eden is located in the Green Mountains in the northern part of Lamoille County. The forest project itself extends all the way to the Quebec border.
Most Forest Legacy Program projects are conserved through conservation easements, allowing landowners to keep their forestlands while protecting them from future development.
2009 Forest Legacy Program project grants:
State
Project
Funding Level
ME
Machias River
$3,450,000
CA
Chalk Mountain Area
$3,000,000
MN
Koochiching Forest Legacy
$3,500,000
AS
Ottoville Rainforest Preserve
$500,000
MA
Southern Monadnock Plateau II
$2,200,000
GA
Southland
$3,500,000
PA
Tree Farm #1
$3,500,000
VA
New River Corridor
$490,000
WV
South Branch
$3,670,000
MT
North Swan River Valley
$2,000,000
MI
Northern Great Lakes Forest Project
$2,000,000
NH
Crotched Mountain
$1,765,000
CO
Snow Mountain Ranch
$2,500,000
NH
Green Acre Woodlands
$1,200,000
UT
Chalk Creek South Fork #2
$3,100,000
CA
Jenner Headlands
$1,000,000
MA
Metacomet-Monadnock Forest
$1,400,000
MO
LaBarque Creek
$1,500,000
OR
Skyline Forest
$1,500,000
OH
Vinton Furnace Experimental Forest
$2,000,000
AR
Pine -Flatwoods Recovery Initiative
$2,060,000
ID
Gold Creek Ranch
$510,000
DE
Green Horizons
$2,000,000
VT
Eden Forest
$1,800,000
TOTAL
$50,145,000
For 2009, the Forest Service selected 24 projects out of 83 excellent state proposals that totaled $193 million. Details of the President s 2010 budget released this week show 47 projects proposed with an increase in funding to more than $91 million.
The Forest Legacy Program uses a national competitive process to select the most ecologically and socially important, threatened and strategic projects. The program consistently leverages more than a 50-percent non-federal match, well above the 25-percent requirement. In addition, each project needs to be at least 75% forested, comply with Federal appraisal standards and complete a multi-resource forest management plan.
For more information on the Forest Legacy Program go to: http://www.fs.fed.us/cooperativeforestry/programs/loa/flp.shtml