Aerial view of Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. The lake curves along the left side of the image and orange with green fall foliage on the right side of the image.

Maryland

Forest Action Plan

Maryland’s Forests

The Maryland Forest Action Plan lays out a five-year plan based on a long-term approach to desired conditions for Maryland’s future forests. The plan characterizes a maturing forest base in Maryland that supports considerable biological diversity, expanding potential for sawtimber and other wood products, greater tree growth than removal, net gains in carbon sequestration, and protection of water quality. Forest land conversion to other uses is considered the greatest threat to many of these forest benefits, since forest land is being lost at almost 3% per decade, a loss much greater than the modest but increasing rates of land conservation.

The plan also identifies five major areas for action: Sustaining/Restoring Forests on the Landscape, Ensuring Forest Health, Ensuring Clean and Abundant Water, Creating Jobs and Sustainable Communities, and increasing Resilience to Climate Change. Sustaining Forests is consistently identified as the highest priority, since all the forest benefits depend on forests remaining on the landscape. Priority areas focus on supporting forest benefits such as clean water, clean air, and community forests.



Best Management Practices

Maryland’s best management practices (BMPs) program is quasi-regulatory. The agencies responsible for BMPs policy development are the Maryland Department of the Environment (plays lead role) and the Maryland Forest Service (provides technical assistance).

Click here to view the most recent BMPs recommendations on the state forestry agency website.

Click the following links to view available BMP monitoring data and implementation rates from NASF’s 2015 BMP survey and NASF’s 2019 BMP survey.

Maryland Forestry Publications

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