Eagle Times Staff
Milwaukee, Wi. — The USDA Forest Service is investing $1.16 million to support three forest restoration projects benefiting non-federal forest lands in Vermont.
The Landscape Scale Restoration competitive grant program supports projects that achieve the shared goals of the Forest Service, sovereign tribal nations and the states to protect and restore forests across jurisdictional boundaries.
“Threats to forests like wildfires, insects and disease do not stop at jurisdictional boundaries, which is why these investments in healthy and resilient forests extend beyond boundary lines,” said Forest Service Chief Randy Moore. “These grants are critical for improving the nation’s forests that provide a range of environmental, social and economic benefits to the American people.”
Vermont’s 2023 Forest Service Eastern Region Landscape Scale Restoration Grant Projects include:
Project one: Audubon Vermont was granted $324,316 in federal funds to help engage landowners in addressing the biodiversity crisis in Vermont.
The future of forests and biodiversity and their ability to adapt to a changing climate depend on how private lands are managed. This project will leverage the relationships, resources, and expertise of a new biodiversity collaborative to elevate and coordinate existing landowner outreach and technical assistance programs. A set of demonstration sites and associated education and outreach will engage landowners to promote biodiversity on their lands by creating biologically and structurally diverse forests to improve forest health, support declining species, and ensure that ecosystem services persist into the future.
Project two: The National Association of Conservation Districts was granted $600,000 in federal funds for protecting forests and water sources in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.
The Northeast-Mid-Atlantic Partnership for Forests and Water is an interagency, multi-partner collaboration that advances science-based restoration of priority forest landscapes and protects water in 13 states from West Virginia to Maine. Regional collaboration will drive alignment between the forest and water sectors and facilitate greater information sharing. Projects will result in measurable on-the-ground outcomes.
Project three: The Forest Stewards Guild is being granted $236,025 in federal funds to aid in sustaining ash trees in the Northeast through training, treatment, and outreach.
The Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) is a non-native insect that threatens to functionally eliminate ash from our forests. The loss of ash is ecologically, economically, and culturally devastating, particularly for Indigenous peoples for whom ash holds a key role in basketry and other traditions. This project will create a regional response to EAB through educating and engaging land managers in science-based, thoughtful treatment of ash, sharing stories of hope, and encouraging actions that will sustain ash across the landscape.
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