USDA Forest Service invests in four projects to restore state and private forests across the South

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service announced it is investing more than $2.1 million in four projects across nine states in the Southern Region to restore state and private forestlands. These investments directly support the agency’s efforts to reduce wildfire risk, increase timber production, and expand rural economies, while providing critical support to landowners across management jurisdictions as they work to promote healthy, productive forests that benefit rural communities.

The investments, totaling more than $7 million nationwide, are being delivered as competitive grants through the Landscape Scale Restoration program. Of the total funding, $600,000 will support two projects for federally recognized tribes.

Projects awarded in the Southern Region are:

• Increasing Resilience of Longleaf Pine Forests on State and Private Lands ($600,000)
  Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina
  The work will increase timber management and prescribed fire for wildfire risk reduction. It includes 50,000 acres treated to reduce or mitigate hazardous fuels, and 2,000 acres of trees planted.
• Forestry Workforce Promotion & Training Program ($600,000)

Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina

The program aims to develop a skilled workforce capable of implementing science-based forest management practices, with 550,000 board feet of timber produced.

• Three-State Cooperative Upland Oak Restoration in Central Hardwoods Region ($600,000)

Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky

The work will restore and manage upland oak ecosystems (including invasive species removal) which is critical to forest health, wildlife habitat, timber and other forest products. Plans include 250 acres treated to reduce or mitigate hazardous fuels; 2,912 acres treated for insects and disease; 250 acres treated for invasive plants; 20,000 trees planted.

• Southeastern Partnership for Forests and Water ($333,333)
  South Carolina, Georgia, Texas

The partnership increases collaboration across eight Southeastern states and implements targeted forest management projects across multiple watersheds in three of those states. Plans include 2,100 acres under new forest management plans; 50 acres tree planting.

In the Southeast, protecting wildlife habitat and restoring important forest ecosystems, such as longleaf pine and oak, are important priorities to ensure continued economic productivity of rural working lands.

Between 2018 and 2024, the Forest Service awarded 359 competitive grants to support projects in 47 states and five territories for a total of $91.2 million dollars in federal funding.

A complete list of funded projects for Fiscal Year 2025 is available on the Forest Service website at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/private-land/landscape-scale-restoration/funded-projects

About the Forest Service: The USDA Forest Service has for more than 100 years brought people and communities together to answer the call of conservation. Grounded in world-class science and technology– and rooted in communities–the Forest Service connects people to nature and to each other. The Forest Service cares for shared natural resources in ways that promote lasting economic, ecological, and social vitality. The agency manages 193 million acres of public land, provides assistance to state and private landowners, maintains the largest wildland fire and forestry research organizations in the world. The Forest Service also has either a direct or indirect role in stewardship of about 900 million forested acres within the U.S., of which over 130 million acres are urban forests where most Americans live.