Senator Jeanne Shaheen on Lake Umbagog, Errol, NH
On March 26, Senator Shaheen re-introduced the Forest Incentives Program Act, a bill she first proposed during the 2019-2020 Congressional session with her colleague from West Virginia, Republican U.S. Senator Shelly Moore Capito.
The Forest Society strongly supports this bi-partisan legislation. It aims to provide incentives for private forest owners to improve and maintain sustainable forest management as well to increase the use of sustainable material, like wood, in the construction of commercial buildings.
Those goals are critical given the fact that more than half of the forestland in the U.S. is privately owned, and more than a third are owned by families and individuals. That percentage is higher in New Hampshire with over 70% of the forested areas under private ownership. By creating those incentives for these families to preserve and conserve their forestland, the Forest Incentives Program Act will address a troubling trend that has seen New Hampshire lose almost 390,000 acres of forest to other uses since 1970, according to data from the US Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA).
Read the press release from Senator Shaheen which includes a quote from Forest Society President Jack Savage.
We would encourage readers to thank the Senator for her commitment to helping keep New Hampshire’s forests as forests.