Save America’s Family Forests Act

Supporting Timely Reforestation
After Natural Disasters

The Save America’s Family Forests Act (SAFFA) helps private forest landowners recover reforestation costs more quickly after natural disasters. It will fix the current tax rules, which slow down replanting after major losses. Tripling the immediate deduction from $10,000 to $30,000 for all landowners for reforestation costs in the year they are spent.

Why Is This Needed?

No Federal Funding

Forest landowners receive NO guaranteed federal funding from disaster relief funding NOR are they provided tax relief from the loss of their timber crop based on the current tax code.

No Annual Income

Most producers impacted by natural disasters have an annual income from their crop. Landowners growing timber for the market must wait 25 to 40 years before their crop is ready to sell to the market.

Long Growing Season

During this time, the landowners must pay expenses and taxes annually without crop income while they wait for their timber to mature to market, usually 25 years for softwood and 40 plus years for hardwoods.

What SAFFA Does:

Modernizes reforestation tax policy while providing enhanced relief following natural disasters.

The Save America’s Family Forests Act allows landowners to:

  • Triple the reforestation deduction from $10,000 to $30,000—the first update since 2004, aligning the provision with inflation
  • Modernize Section 194 to better reflect current reforestation costs
  • Allow landowners impacted by federally declared natural disasters to deduct up to $500,000 in reforestation expenses immediately
  • Improve liquidity and access to capital needed to quickly replant and restore forests

How Can You Help?

  • Contact your Members of Congress Urge them to support and cosponsor the legislation.
    • Reach out to your Network 
      • Encourage state and national associations to prioritize the Disaster Reforestation Act in their policy priorities and raise awareness of this policy solution with associates.
  • Support FLA’s Advocacy Tools
    • Contribute to FLA’s PAC so we can enhance the tools we need to elevate your challenges and commonsense solutions to lawmakers at every level.

The Forest Landowners Association is here to assist with the following: 

  • Drafting talking points 
    • We can help you articulate your message effectively.
  • Providing resources through our toolkit 
  • Arranging meetings
    • We can help facilitate discussions with key stakeholders and legislators.

Who Supports the Save America’s Family Forest Act?

Sponsors

House of Representatives

Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA)
Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL)

Cosponsors

House of Representatives

Aaron Bean (R-FL)
Nathaniel Moran (R-TX)
Greg Murphy (R-NC)
Greg Steube (R-FL)
Mike Thompson (D-CA)



Senate

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA)

Senate

Supporting Organizations

SAFFA has just been introduced in the House. To see a list of supporting organizations, read our news release.

“America’s farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners care deeply for the land they’ve been entrusted with. When natural disasters strike, recovery is not just about rebuilding; it’s about continued improvement to ensure sustainability. We appreciate members of Congress who have worked in a bipartisan manner to create the Save America’s Family Forests Act. It builds on proven policies to give forest landowners the flexibility they need to replant and recover without unnecessary delay.”

American Farm Bureau Federation