Letters

The National Association of State Foresters and eleven other natural resources organizations have sent a letter to House and Senate leadership requesting that forests be included in a final infrastructure package. Investing in Wildfire Resilience. Restoring America’s forests, watersheds, and rangeland – upgrading our natural infrastructure – is an opportunity to build climate resilience and [read more]

The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (H.R. 2773) represents a pragmatic, state-focused investment that can prevent one-third of our nation’s fish and wildlife from becoming threatened or endangered while creating a significant number of jobs that support the outdoor economy and other key sectors, such as agriculture, and forestry. NASF has supported the Alliance for America's [read more]

In a letter to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Interior, Environment and and Related Agencies, fifty organizations stated their support for increased fiscal year (FY) 2022 funding for the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program. We urge Congress to support FIA at no less than $93.5M in [read more]

In a Dear Colleague letter to the chair and ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, members of the House asked that funding for the State Fire Assistance and Volunteer Fire Assistance programs be increased in fiscal year (FY) 2022 to help state and local agencies fight wildfires across the [read more]

In a letter to House members, a coalition of diverse organizations, businesses, professional societies, state fish and wildlife agencies, and tribal nations requested support for the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act. The bipartisan bill was introduced today by Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell and Nebraska Rep. Jeff Fortenberry. Read the support letter in full by clicking the [read more]

Fifty groups have signed on to a letter asking appropriators to fund the Forest Stewardship Program (FSP) at $30 million (including $22 million for program work under the new budget structure) for fiscal year 2022. FSP equips private forest landowners with the unbiased, science-based information they need to sustainably manage their forests now and into [read more]

In a letter to the incoming Biden administration, NASF and other avid supporters of urban and community forestry have detailed their recommendations for improving American communities through the maintenance and expansion of urban and community forests. Our nation’s current and expanding 138 million acres of urban forests and trees are key to addressing priorities identified [read more]

The National Association of State Foresters has written a letter to House and Senate appropriations leadership regarding the creation of a "Deputy Chief for Fire and Aviation" position for the administration of Wildland Fire Management appropriations. While we agree more must be done to minimize the threat of catastrophic wildfire, we are concerned that establishing [read more]

NASF and other members of the Forest-Climate Working Group have joined in support for the Rural Forests Markets Act, introduced by Senators Braun and Stabenow. The bipartisan Rural Forest Markets Act provides a federal loan guarantee to support innovative projects that help small forest owners develop climate solutions and other environmental challenges by adopting sustainable [read more]

In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, NASF and a long list of other conservation organizations raised concerns regarding a major change to the Natural Resources Conservation Service's (NRCS) Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). In short, the new fiscal year (FY) 2020-2021 RCPP Classic Application for Public Funding (APF) includes implementation guidance that could [read more]