Blog

Posted on Monday, January 2nd, 2017

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is seeking public comment on the proposed fiscal year 2018 work plans for the following state forests: Chesapeake/Pocomoke, Green Ridge, Potomac-Garrett and Savage River. The comment period concludes Feb. 2. Annual work plans help the department identify priorities within the scope of the forests’ long-range management. They address composition, establishment, growth, health and quality along with construction and maintenance projects. “Our citizens, economy and environment all reap the positive benefits of healthy and sustainable forests,” said Maryland Forest Service Director Don VanHassent. “We are dependent on the public’s input to help us develop the most comprehensive
Read More

Comments Off on Maryland State Forest Work Plans Released

Posted on Monday, January 2nd, 2017

The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) and the Ruffed Grouse Society (RGS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the shared goals of the two organizations to advance science-based wildlife management, wildlife conservation and the sportsmen’s heritage. This partnership will provide an opportunity to combine CSF’s legislative knowledge and network of federal and state sportsmen’s caucuses with the vast RGS membership of upland hunters to effectively guide policy in a way that encourages the active participation of sportsmen and women in the legislative process. “We look forward to collaborating with the Ruffed Grouse Society on advancing our common mission of protecting
Read More

Comments Off on CSF and RGS Partner to Advance Conservation Goals

USDA Commits $32 Million to Protect Natural Resources

Posted on Monday, January 2nd, 2017 by aadmin

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced a new investment of $32 million to improve the health and resiliency of forest ecosystems where public forests and grasslands connect to privately-owned lands. Over $3 million will be invested in the Appalachian regions of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia to help sustain oak ecosystems and restore forests and grasslands.  Through the Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership, USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and the U.S. Forest Service will invest the new funds in fiscal year 2017 to add ten new projects and support 26 partnership projects already underway. Federal, state, and local
Read More

Comments Off on USDA Commits $32 Million to Protect Natural Resources

Posted on Monday, January 2nd, 2017

What do biologists look for in a healthy forest? A diversity in the ages and composition of trees and occasional breaks in canopy to allow sunlight to reach understory plants. Healthy forests, just like healthy human populations, are sustained by a diversity of ages. Each group has a role to play in maintaining the whole community over the long term. But healthy, diverse forests are on the decline across the eastern United States. A lack of natural and human-induced disturbances because of fire suppression and certain timber harvest methods have led the forested landscape to become largely homogenous. These declines
Read More

Comments Off on Bringing Back Diversity in Eastern Forests for Landowners, Wildlife

Partnership Seeks Input for Projects to Strengthen Defense and Working Land

Posted on Monday, December 19th, 2016 by aadmin

Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) joined the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Department of Defense (DoD) to announce the Sentinel Landscapes Federal Coordinating Committee will now accept applications for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 Sentinel Landscape designation process. Established in 2013, the Sentinel Landscape Partnership is a nationwide Federal, local and private collaboration dedicated to promoting natural resource sustainability and the preservation of agricultural and conservation land uses in areas surrounding military installations. “Together with our partners, USDA investments in the Sentinel Landscape Partnership are already having an impact, demonstrating that restoration of wildlife habitat and
Read More

Comments Off on Partnership Seeks Input for Projects to Strengthen Defense and Working Land

Posted on Friday, December 9th, 2016

At the request of the State of Tennessee, the Department of the Interior has agreed to designate approximately 75,000 acres of mountain ridgelines as unsuitable for surface coal mining operations. Today’s action helps protect a spectacular area of eastern Tennessee that is critical to the region’s tourism and outdoor recreation economy, provides valuable fish and wildlife habitat and supports a healthy watershed. In its petition, the State said coal mining in the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area and Emory River Tract Conservation Easement would be incompatible with existing local and State land use plans and programs, and that such mining
Read More

Comments Off on Secretary Jewell Announces Decision to Protect 75,000 Acres in Eastern TN