In October 2022, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to designate 209,520 acres of forestland in Louisiana and Texas as critical habitat for the Louisiana Pinesnake. 72,925 acres of this proposed designation are privately owned, including 2,716 acres of unoccupied private land designated for reintroduction efforts on adjacent National Forest land. FLA prepared comments…
Collaborative conservation was the cornerstone of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s finding earlier this month that listing the gopher tortoise population as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act was not warranted throughout its entire range. The populations in the eastern segment, which includes Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and most of…
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Friday, October 14, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. issued a Proclamation on National Forest Products Week, 2022, stating: “During National Forest Products Week, we give thanks for the beauty of our forest and the bounty they provide: from the lumber in our homes and the paper we print to the medicines…
In response to President Biden’s Executive Order 14072: Strengthening the Nation’s Forests, Communities, and Local Economies, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management on July 15, 2022, released a Request for Information to inform their approach to defining and conserving old growth and mature forests. While landowners can appreciate the cultural significance…
By Bob Williams Most forest landowners understand the critical role logging plays in the long-term ownership and conservation of their forest resources, both from an ecologicaland economic perspective. The Britannica definition of logging is “the process of harvesting trees, sawing them into appropriate lengths and transporting them to a sawmill.” Of course, there is some…
UPDATE: On July 3, 2023, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released the finalized rule on experimental populations. The final rule revises the regulations concerning experimental populations of endangered and threatened species under the Endangered Species Act by allowing for the introduction of populations into habitats outside of their historical range. The Service did little…
President Biden recently released his $5.8 trillion fiscal year 2023 (FY23) budget proposal, which he plans to fund through tax hikes that may impact private forest landowners. The budget proposal relies heavily on an annual 20% tax on taxpayers with income and assets exceeding $100 million. While the tax is being dubbed as a “billionaires…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEApril 22, 2022 Private forests provide clean air, clean water and essential wildlife habitat Carrolton, GA – It’s Earth Day, which means it’s time to thank a private forest landowner. America’s forest landowners are working behind the scenes managing their forests not only for wood supply but to provide clean drinking water, remove…
In 2021, the Biden administration proposed a hefty goal of conserving 30% of America’s land and water by 2030 (called the “30 by 30” initiative, and later the America the Beautiful Initiative). With over half of forestland in the U.S. being privately owned, landowners worried what this goal might mean for their working forests. Earlier…
In 2020, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced its proposal to change the status of the red-cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis) from “endangered” to “threatened.” The bird had been listed as “endangered” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) since its passage in 1973. The 4(d) rule associated with the downlisting included many caveats that…