Forest Legacy Program
Helping landowners convert private forests to public land
Intact forestlands support wildlife habitat, soil and watershed protection, carbon sequestration, and other important values. As our forests are increasingly developed and fragmented, the public benefits they provide are lost. The Forest Legacy Program is a federally funded initiative that supports states' efforts to protect environmentally sensitive privately owned forestlands that are threatened by development and other pressures.
The Walls of Jericho area in Tennessee is one of many projects in the Southeast being conserved through the Forest Legacy Program.
The program has two parts:
1. It enables states to place conservation easements on privately owned forestland. Conservation easements are legally binding agreements that place certain restrictions on the land without removing the property from private ownership. Forest Legacy conservation easements typically restrict development but allow "working" forests (i.e., logging).
2. It enables states to acquire private forestlands from willing sellers so that these forests can be added to the public land base.
With the Eastern Forest Partnership, SELC is working in Washington to push for increased appropriations for the Forest Legacy program and to direct Forest Legacy monies to conserving premier forestlands in the South. Our combined efforts have already led to a significant increase in Forest Legacy funding: in the early 1990s the program provided $5 million, almost exclusively to forest conservation in New England. Our long-term goal is to expand the annual appropriation to $300 million. Our efforts to date have helped direct Forest Legacy monies to protect the Walls of Jericho in Tennessee, Altamaha River corridor in Georgia, and Campbell Creek watershed in North Carolina.
