Trees and forests built America and are essential for the nation’s growth and success. State forestry agencies are poised to support the new presidential administration. The National Association of State Foresters (NASF) is pleased to provide the Donald Trump Administration and Congress with recommendations for capitalizing on the benefits of trees and forests. Trees and [read more]
According to the USDA Forest Service study 2013–2027 National Insect and Disease Forest Risk Assessment, 81 million acres of forested land have hazardous conditions for disease and insects. To learn more about the National Forest Health Monitoring Program, please join the following webinar on Wednesday, November 30, 2016 at 11 am EST: Research Contributions to Forest Health Monitoring Dr. Frank Koch [read more]
By Greg Pilchak On June 23rd, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held a hearing to receive testimony on the recent discussion draft entitled “Wildfire Budgeting, Response and Forest Management Act of 2016.” The hearing on the bill focused on three main issues: 1) the need to end “fire borrowing”; 2) the growing [read more]
National Forest Foundation offers $100,000 in prize money for innovative business concepts that advance National Forest health By Greg M. Peters, Director of Communications, National Forest Foundation Our 193-million-acre National Forest System is an incredible asset for our country. These public lands provide clean water to more than 100 million Americans, host abundant wildlife and [read more]
By Greg Pilchak On Wednesday, May 25th, leaders on the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee released draft legislation whose goal is to improve wildfire budgeting and forest management. The bipartisan legislation is the culmination of recent Committee efforts to examine and find solutions to problems such as “fire borrowing,” the speed of environmental reviews, and fire suppression [read more]
By: Jessica Hernandez On Wednesday April 20th, Congressman Bruce Westerman (R-Arkansas) and a bipartisan group of members of Congress launched the Working Forests Caucus. The caucus, which is co-chaired by Rep. Westerman and charter members Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Washington), Sanford Bishop (D-Georgia), and Collin Peterson (D-Minnesota) was created to promote the benefits of America’s working [read more]
America’s federally owned forestlands face serious threats. Entire landscapes are experiencing deteriorating health problems and uncharacteristic ecological change as a result of insect and disease epidemics, catastrophic wildfire and other forest health stressors. Increasing the pace and scale of forest management projects is necessary to improve the resilience of federal forest lands. There are 750 [read more]
Late Tuesday night the United States Senate approved legislation to make retroactive payments for fiscal year 2014 and to extend payments for fiscal year 2015 to counties under the Secure Rural Schools & Community Self Determination Act (Secure Rural Schools, or SRS) program. The House of Representatives had already passed the bill in March and President [read more]
The pace and scale of active forest management must increase substantially to begin to restore our federal forests to a more sustainable & resilient condition and to provide the continued benefits of clean air, clean water, recreation opportunities, wildlife habitat, forest products, jobs, and other benefits of a viable forest products business sector. State foresters [read more]
US Sen. Jon Tester’s long-stalled forest bill, the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, which would newly designate acreage for both wilderness and logging in three Montana forests, could be finding some new momentum, the senator and bill supporters say. Tester’s bill was introduced in 2009. It designates at least 100,000 acres of national forestland for [read more]
