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State &
Private Forestry Programs
Landowner
Assistance Programs:
Forest Stewardship (FSP)
Stewardship Incentives Program (SIP)
Forestry Incentives Program (FIP)
Issue
There are nearly 10 million owners of almost 500 million acres of non-Federal
forests; the number of owners is up sharply over the last 20 years due to
widespread subdivision of ownerships. Lands owned by nonindustrial, private
owners make up two thirds of the forests in the US, and currently produce more
than half of the annual timber supply. These lands are vital to the long-term
sustainability of America’s forests. Studies and experience show that as tract
size declines, owners become less likely to actively manage their forests.
Status
The National Research Council Study Forested Landscapes in Perspective:
Prospects and Opportunities for Sustainable Management of America’s Nonfederal
Forests, concluded that public investments, particularly at the Federal level,
do not adequately reflect the level of public interest in private forest lands.
The lack of investment in landowner assistance programs dramatically reflects
this problem; in the entire Federal budget, only slightly $40 million is
invested in helping non-industrial private landowners to meet their management
objectives while providing broader, landscape scale benefits. This investment is
inadequate to reflect the economic and ecological values provided by the almost
500 million acres of private forests. NASF is proposing that this investment,
through the Forest Stewardship, Stewardship Incentives, and Forestry Incentives
Programs, be increased in fiscal year 2000.
There are increasing pressures on nonindustrial private
forest landowners to produce a multitude of goods and services from their forest
lands. Pressures from development, land cost increases and frequently associated
tax increases, and pressure to meet the market demand for wood products in the
wake of supply reductions from Federal public lands are all converging on
private woodland owners. Failure to provide incentives and assistance to
reinvest in, reforest, and manage these lands is leading to resource impairment
that could take decades to repair. In some regions of the country, cost-share
programs are necessary to get landowners to consider the use of forestry
practices to cope with existing resource problems. Conservation practices on
lands in the midwest are prime examples. In other regions, the Stewardship
Incentives Program can help provide a small Federal match for State and local
investment to protect watershed values. The New York City Watershed is a prime
example of where low-cost, land management practices can help eliminate the need
for larger State and Federal expenditures later on for water treatment.
Programs
These programs have been underfunded over the past several years, and in fact
the Stewardship Incentives Program had its funding eliminated in the fiscal year
1999 budget. Cost-share funding from the Stewardship Incentives Program (SIP)
helps landowners to implement practices called for in their Forest Stewardship
plans. Incentives and technical assistance for landowners are a preferable way
of securing benefits which landowners may not be able to provide without
assistance. These programs use a voluntary, non-regulatory, incentive-based
approach to working with private landowners.
The Stewardship, Stewardship Incentives, and Forestry
Incentives Programs provide incentives and assistance to landowners to help them
meet their objectives while providing benefits such as clean air, clean water,
soil conservation, and wildlife habitat. The Forest Stewardship program helps
State Forestry agencies to provide service forestry support for the Stewardship
program, and helps fund the operation of State Stewardship Committees.
Stewardship Incentives program helps provide cost-share assistance to landowners
to implement the practices called for in their Stewardship plans. The Forestry
Incentives Program provides cost-share assistance to nonindustrial private
landowners to help them reforest and improve their forests. FIP is focused on
timber production and stand improvement. NASF is recommending that the increase
in funding for FIP be used to support increased seedling production capacity and
that the use of prescribed fire be eligible for cost-share assistance.
NASF does not support the proposal by the Administration to
pass through $10 million of SIP funding to the Rural Business Service. We do not
feel that this is the intent of the program. Appropriated dollars should be
focused on achieving results in targeted watersheds on NIPF lands.
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