USDA Signs Technical Service Provider Agreement With Association of Consulting Foresters of America

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20, 2004—The U.S. Department of Agriculture signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Association of Consulting Foresters of America, offering landowners more options to obtain conservation technical assistance in forestry and agroforestry from certified technical service providers.

The 2002 Farm Bill expanded the availability of technical assistance to private landowners by encouraging the use of technical service providers to assist USDA in delivering conservation services to farmers, ranchers and others.

“This agreement will allow owners of family forests to gain access to more than 600 consulting foresters in 37 states with proven ability and technical expertise,” said Mack Gray, USDA’s deputy under secretary for natural resources and environment. “More than 10 million families own about 350 million acres of private forests in this nation. These certified foresters can help landowners identify and achieve goals for their woodlands, such as managing forest products, wildlife habitat, recreation, water resources and aesthetics.”

Gray and ACF Executive Director Lynn Wilson signed the five-year MOU. The MOU allows ACF to recommend its members, who must meet strict education and experience requirements, to USDA for certification to provide technical services related to forestry and agroforestry. Their work must meet USDA standards and specifications for quality conservation technical assistance.

ACF is the only national association for consulting foresters. Currently, there are 638 members in 37 states and New Brunswick, Canada. ACF, headquartered in Alexandria, VA, has 22 chapters mostly in forested areas throughout the United States.

USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service certifies technical service providers and lists them on a national, web-based registry called TechReg. Farmers, ranchers and other landowners seeking conservation technical assistance can locate a technical service provider through this registry.

In addition to ACF, USDA has signed MOUs with the following nine certifying organizations—American Society of Agronomy, Society for Range Management, The Wildlife Society, Society of American Foresters, The Irrigation Association, University of Tennessee, National Alliance of Independent Crop Consultants, Environmental Management Solutions and American Registry of Professional Animal Scientists.

The MOUs allow these organizations to recommend qualified individuals to USDA for certification as technical service providers in conservation planning and design, layout, installation and checkout of approved conservation practices.

Additional information on technical service provider assistance is available at http://techreg.usda.gov.
 

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