Category: News

https://www.fs.fed.us/blogs/private-forests-public-benefits Private forests, public benefits Margee Haines Natural Resource Specialist, USDA Forest Service December 21, 2018 at 1:00pm Privately-owned forests provide water, recreational opportunities, timber and other forest products, as well as habitat for fish and wildlife. However, as forests become fragmented by roads or converted to development, the benefits they provide can be compromised or lost altogether. Now a new report is asking that we take a closer look at the economic contributions of the privately-owned forests – specifically, forests conserved through the USDA Forest Service’s Forest Legacy Program (FLP). The FLP is one way that the Forest Service responds to land use changes that threaten rural communities and economies. Researchers from the University of Massachusetts and the Forest Service used national, regional, and statewide data to estimate annual timber harvest volumes and wood utilization, the value of maple syrup production, and annual use and trip spending for fishing, hunting and snowmobiling for FLP-conserved properties in four areas of the country: the Northeast, Northern Wisconsin and Michigan, Idaho and Western Montana, and...