Forest Legacy: Accelerating Private Forest Conservation

For Immediate Release—24 March 2015—Congressman Chris Gibson introduced a bill today that will accelerate the pace and scale of forest conservation through a modest tweak to the Forest Legacy Program. The Forest Legacy Management Flexibility Act of 2015 is a technical tweak to the USDA’s Forest Legacy Program, which would expand public-private conservation partnerships, remove unnecessary barriers to forestland protection, and give states more flexibility and control over how they implement this important federal- state program. The need for this bill is critical; on average over 1 million acres of forestland have been lost to conversion annually over the last 20 years.

This bill, co-sponsored by 14 original co-sponsors, allows qualified third parties such as accredited land trusts to serve as the grantees of Forest Legacy easements when so directed by the state lead agency.

Rep. Chris Gibson (R-NY) recently introduced H.R. 1582 to make this important change. The Forest Legacy Management Flexibility Act allows land trusts to serve as the grantees of Forest Legacy easements when directed to by the state lead agency. “The forest legacy program enjoys broad support in Congress and among landowners, land trusts and the conservation community,” said Congressman Chris Gibson (NY-19). “This common-sense reform will allow accredited land trusts to hold and manage Forest Legacy projects, bringing this critical program into line with other conservation programs. This is a competitive program and demand outpaces funding. This reform will allow states, if they choose, to leverage private funding sources to safeguard our rural landscapes.”

The USDA’s Forest Legacy Program provides Land and Water Conservation Fund monies – generated by federal offshore oil and gas leases—to states to pay for public-private working forest conservation. [H.R. 1582] would give states the option of selecting a land trust partner to work with on a case-by-case basis, with no other changes to the program. In 2014, over 90 groups—landowners and land trusts alike— advocated for this change.

While the Forest Legacy Program is a powerful tool for the conservation of private working forestlands, the program is constrained by the fact that only governmental agencies are allowed to hold the conservation easements it funds. Because easements entail ongoing stewardship and monitoring obligations from entities that hold them, Forest Legacy requires a substantial commitment of resources by state implementing agencies. In this time of tight budgets, these costs represent a considerable burden for states.