Promoting Stewardship of Privately Owned Forests
The South boasts over 200 million acres of forestland, ranging from the mountain forests of the Southern Appalachians, to the longleaf pine forests of the coastal plain, to the bottomland hardwood forests that border our rivers. In our region, 90 percent of the forested land is privately owned, of which two-thirds is owned by individuals and families. Timber companies comprise the majority of the remaining privately owned forestland. However, as timber companies across the South continue to sell off their holdings, the fate of the overwhelming majority of southern forestlands lies increasingly in the hands of family forest landowners.
©Bill Lea
SELC is taking action on multiple fronts to counter these trends and conserve the most ecologically important private forestlands in the South. With our conservation allies, we are:
Raising Public Awareness: SELC is meeting with southern legislators and policy-makers to educate them on the status of privately owned forestland in the South; working with state foresters to determine how they can best foster the conservation of private forests; and conducting conferences to educate landowners and others on the ecological values of southern forests and the resources available to help landowners manage their land for conservation purposes.
Supporting Good Tax Policies: SELC is supporting property tax policies that provide incentives for family forest landowners to keep their forests as forests, and we are pressing to extend tax advantages to landowners who desire to manage their forests more specifically for wildlife, water quality, or other ecological values.
Promoting Acquisition of Private Forests: SELC is promoting government programs (e.g., Land and Water Conservation Fund) that enable the federal government to acquire premier privately owned forestland from willing sellers so that these forests can be added to our base of national parks and refuges.
Enabling Conservation Easements: SELC is promoting programs (e.g., Forest Legacy) that allow states to purchase private forests or to place conservation easements on private forestlands, which allows landowners to maintain them as "working forests."
Supporting Family Forest Landowners: SELC is pursuing increased funding for landowner assistance programs designed to help family forest landowners manage their forests for conservation purposes by providing technical and financial assistance.
