In a letter to congressional leadership today, the National Association of State Foresters and a host of other forestry and tree organizations showed their strong support for the House Agriculture Committee’s $40 billion forestry package.
The House Agriculture Committee’s $40 billion forestry package includes support for shared priorities across the diverse spectrum of urban and community forestry stakeholders, including significant investments in USDA Forest Service programs like:
• Urban and Community Forestry (U&CF)
• Community Forests and Open Space Conservation (CFP)
• Forest and Rangeland Research, including Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA)
• Forest Health Monitoring
• Forest Legacy
• Civilian Climate Corps (CCC) (new)It is critical that the $40 billion slated for forest restoration and wildfire resilience in the reconciliation package is maintained. This funding will allow our organizations to leverage the funding and resources we need to partner with state agencies, local communities, and non-governmental organizations to help create thousands of jobs, restore millions of acres of forest, reduce wildfire risk, rebuild vital infrastructure critical to economic recovery, and deliver assistance to urban areas benefiting diverse and often underserved communities.
Increasing the federal contribution of matching criteria for these funds would enhance the ability of U&CF and CCC to provide technical, financial, educational, and research services to communities so they can plant, protect, and maintain community trees and forests, and utilize wood from these trees, to maximize environmental, social, and economic benefits.
Read the letter in full by clicking the link below.