ORONO, Maine, July 25, 2024 — Today, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service is making $190 million available to help private forest landowners adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change and retain working forestlands.
This new investment, announced today at the University of Maine’s Investing in America Town Hall, was made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act – part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda and the largest climate investment in history.
“Climate change threatens people, communities, infrastructure, and natural resources across the country,” said Secretary Vilsack. “Healthy, resilient forests can better withstand climate change impacts, and contribute to climate solutions by storing additional carbon. Thanks to President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, we are partnering with states and nonprofits to reduce financial barriers for landowners interested in adopting climate-smart forestry practices and making their lands more resilient to climate change. These strategic investments represent our commitment to an all-lands, all-hands approach to investing in rural communities and mitigating the climate crisis.”
Of the total, $140 million is available to support state-endorsed cost-share programs for landowners. Cost-share payments lower the financial barriers for landowners to adapt to climate change by making forests more resilient to changing climate conditions, and to store more carbon on the landscape. For example, a landowner may decide to work with states and non-profits to strategically thin their private forestland, removing small-diameter trees that compete for scarce resources, allowing large trees to grow larger and sequester more carbon.
Additionally, $50 million is available to programs that issue payments directly to landowners to adopt practices that increase carbon sequestration and storage of their forests. Forest management impacts the amount of carbon stored and sequestered, and this funding opportunity incentivizes carbon stewardship. Among other things, payments to landowners also provide financial incentive to maintain their land as forests rather than convert it to other uses. Eligible applicants include state forestry agencies or their equivalents and nonprofit organizations.
Privately owned forests and private forest landowners are key to tackling the climate crisis. Private landowners manage more than 60% of forests in the United States; in Maine, they manage more than 90% of all forests. These vast swaths of privately managed forests are key to the carbon cycle and are an important climate solution, absorbing vast quantities of carbon and storing it for decades.
The Forest Service is committed to supporting landowners as they manage their forests in a changing climate. In addition to these investments, the agency recently announced $145 million from the Inflation Reduction Act for projects that connect private forest landowners with emerging climate markets.
This funding advances environmental justice and President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which set the goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal climate, clean energy, and other covered investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.
For more information about the available funding opportunity, including eligibility and how to apply, visit the Forest Service’s Forest Landowner Support webpage.
USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate-smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.
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