Forest Stewardship Programs

Forests are some of the resources most needed and increasingly protected resources all over the world and especially in America. Forests nowadays are being protected through a wide variety of programs and states encourage individuals, especially land owners to plant trees and help to develop a better planet. Here one can read more about one of the programs that are currently being used to promote long-term forest management, the forest stewardship program.

It is estimated that about 45% of the forestland in the United States is under nonindustrial private ownership which means that about 354 million acres of forest contribute, on a daily basis, to America’s clean water and air, recreational resources, timber supplies and wildlife habitat. Forests are protected in America and private landowners are encouraged to invest more into forest management through the Forest Stewardship Program, a program that has been authorized by the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978 and which is aimed at providing nonindustrial private forest owners with technical assistance which is offered through State forestry agency partners. The forest stewardship program is focused on contributing to the development of comprehensive, multi-resource management plans that would provide landowners with all the information they need to manage their forests.

The forest stewardship program has been initiated in 1991 and ever since it has produced more than 270,000 multi-resource management plans for more than 31 million acres of nonindustrial forest private land. The management plans motive the landowners to be more active in planning and managing their forests and they are meant to ensure that the forests will be handled with responsibility and that they will remain intact. At the international level, the protection of forests is overseen by the Forest Stewardship Council which has been created in 1993 and whose aim is to promote sustainable management of the forests all over the world.