Landowner Assitance Programs
Forest Land Enhancement Program
Nationally, 10 million private landowners mananage more forest acres than the US government and the forest industry combined, yet receive ever-dwindling financial support for forest stewardship. The nation's largest rural lands funding legislation, the 2002 Farm Bill, created only one program - the Forest Land Enhancement Program (FLEP) - targeting these landowners. By contrast, the same legislation authorized five programs and $3 billion in funding to support the 2 million private agriculture producers in the nation.
FLEP provides incentives for wildlife habitat improvement, reforestation and agroforestry, to establish and promote sustainable multiple resource management practices on private lands while streamlining state and federal assistance programs. In fact, FLEP is the first private forest incentive program to offer the prospect of mandatory funding for sustainable forestry practices at levels previously reserved for agricultural programs.
Unfortunately, this landmark program has been threatened with rollbacks and inadequate funding in recent years. Initially, FLEP was authorized with $100 million to be allocated over five years. However, western forest fires in 2003 resulted in the program losing $40 million in funds that were redirected to the Forest Service for fire suppression costs. Only $10 million of these borrowed funds were reimbursed. President Bush, in his 2005 budget, eliminated the remaining funding for FLEP, leaving states no additional funding for already established programs.
SELC was actively involved in ensuring that the FLEP program was crafted to adequately provide incentives to southern forest landowners comparable to those provided for other private landowners in order to ensure sustainable management of all forest resources. Today, SELC is working to bring attention to the needs of private landowners and ensure FLEP funding in the upcoming 2007 Farm Bill be returned to levels that reflect the increased demand of the popular and effective cost-sharing program.
