Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry
Strategic Plan FY 2004 to FY 2008
The Northeastern Area strategic plan helps us focus on the great threats affecting the Nation’s forests today—fire hazards, invasive species, forest fragmentation, and effects of unmanaged recreation. Since a majority of the Nation’s forests, including over 90 percent of the forests within the 20 Northeastern and Midwestern States, are in State and private ownership, the success of our cooperative efforts is important and significant! Our strategic plan recognizes the challenges of today and prepares us for the challenges ahead. We will use this plan and the focus it provides to anticipate both opportunities and challenges facing forest resources, forest landowners, our partners, and our own organization. We’ll learn from the past, as we focus on the future.
The Year in Forestry
State and Private Forestry in the
Northeast and Midwest
Fiscal Year 2007
The Year in Forestry S&PF NA 2007
The Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry (NA), a unit of the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, covers a 20-State region and the District of Columbia. The region is home to 41 percent of the nation's people and 23 percent of its forests. Private landowners hold nearly 130 million acres, including forest land owned by almost 5 million family forest land owners.
Overall, Northeast and Midwest forests are healthy and productive. The landscape continues to produce more forest growth than the amount harvested. Most of the region's plants and animals are thriving, and key tracts of important forest land are being permanently protected for environmental benefits. Nearly 600,000 people work at jobs directly connected to forests.
Millions of acres of State and private forest land provide public benefits that citizens and visitors alike depend upon. These forests protect drinking water and provide recreational opportunities, forest products, cleaner air, and the chance to encounter wildlife. Many of these forest benefits are irreplaceable, yet nearly 3.8 million acres of forest were lost to development between 1982 and 1997, with another 12 million acres projected to be lost by the year 2030.
Featured Projects of the Northeastern Area
NA’s Featured Projects highlight efforts we’re making to monitor, manage, protect, and better use America’s forests. They give examples of how NA provides cutting edge technical and financial assistance to State and other partners to help manage nonfederal forests.
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