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The purpose of a new approach to State and Private Forestry is to shape and influence forest land use on a scale, and in a way, that optimizes public benefits from trees and forests for both current and future generations.

In 2008, the U.S. Forest Service will begin implementing a “Redesigned” State and Private Forestry (S&PF) program. The S&PF Redesign effort was conceived in response to the combined impacts of increasing pressures on our nation’s forests and decreasing S&PF resources and funds. Significant threats to forests, such as insect and disease infestations, catastrophic fire, and the loss of critical forested landscapes to development, coupled with the pressure placed on local economies by the increasingly global nature of the forest products industry, point to the need for more progressive strategies for conserving our nation’s forest resource.

Over the past two years, the U.S. Forest Service has been working closely with the National Association of State Foresters (NASF) to:

1. Examine the current conditions and trends affecting forest lands,
2. Review existing S&PF programs to determine how to best address threats to our forests, and
3. Develop a strategy, including guiding principles and components of change, for delivering a relevant and meaningful set of S&PF programs, skills and opportunities.

The new Redesign approach will focus on three consensus-based S&PF National Themes:
Conserve working forest landscapes,
Protect forests from harm, and
Enhance public benefits from trees and forests.

“The S&PF Redesign offers State Foresters and their partners a tremendous opportunity to work together in identifying the highest priority landscapes in their states and regions and develop focused strategies for addressing the forest resource challenges on those landscapes,” says E. Austin Short, III, State Forester of Delaware and President of NASF.

National and state resource assessments will be used to develop competitive proposals for S&PF funds; those projects that receive S&PF dollars will respond directly to the National Themes as well as annual national direction developed by the U.S. Forest Service. The amount of S&PF funds competitively awarded will gradually increase over the next several years, beginning with 15% in 2008.

The Redesigned S&PF will also include an emphasis on transitioning to a more flexible and adaptive organization and will examine opportunities to integrate and maximize current programs with other, similar federal forestry programs.

“Implementing the S&PF Redesign will enable us to apply our increasingly limited resources in a more targeted and meaningful way—improving our ability to shape and influence forest land use in a way that maximizes public benefits and addresses nationally significant priorities,” says Jim Hubbard, Forest Service Deputy Chief for S&PF.

The national S&PF office will report annually to Congress and partners on the progress of the Redesigned S&PF. New emphasis will be placed on improving our collective ability to demonstrate and communicate accomplishments.

For more information on the S&PF Redesign effort, please contact
Debbie Pressman (Forest Service, dpressman@fs.fes.us), or Jan Davis
(TX Forest Service jdavis@tfs.tamu.edu).

-->Click here for this one-page brief.


Competitive Resource Allocation Process

The State & Private Forestry (S&PF) Redesign assumes that our collective efforts will be most effective if available resources are focused on issues and landscapes of national importance and prioritized, using state and regional assessments, on activities that promise meaningful outcomes on the ground. This concept is captured as: focus + priority + outcome. The Redesign Board of Directors identified “competitive resource allocation” as an effective means of ensuring that federal S&PF dollars are invested in projects that meet this standard.

Beginning in federal fiscal year 2008 (FY 08), an increasing percentage of the S&PF allocation will be invested in projects selected through a competitive process. These processes will be informed by the national guidance described below, but administered through a joint effort between the state forestry and USFS leadership in the northeast, south and west. It is anticipated that each geographic region will design their competitive process to address geographically significant issues and landscapes as well as the broad themes and direction provided at the national level.

Once completed, the FY 2008 Competitive Allocation Process will be reviewed and assessed by a team of S&PF and state forestry representatives to identify any changes that may be needed prior to FY 2009.

-->Click here FY '09 National Guidance for the Competitive Resource Allocation
-->Click here Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act Authorities
-->Click here Competitive Process Q&As Addressing Eligible Activities
-->Click here FY08' Competitive Allocation Process Briefing Paper

• Northeastern Area Association of State Foresters
Ian Macfarlane, Executive Manager, ian.macfarlane@mail.wvu.edu,
(703) 243-9462
• Southern Group of State Foresters
Mike Zupko, Executive Director,sgsfexec@mindspring.org
• Western Forestry Leadership Coalition/Council of Western State Foresters
Jay Jensen, Program Manager,jay.jensen@colostate.edu;
(303) 445-4364, http://www.wflcweb.org/sapf/index.php


Redesign Components of Change

The key Components of Change embodied in the Redesign approach are:
National Themes
National Assessment
State Assessments & State Response Plans
Competitive Resource Allocation
Programs & Staffing
Demonstrating and Communicating Results
Integrated Program Delivery


Questions & Answers

-->Click here for a current list of questions and answers concerning the SPF Redesign effort.

For More Information

Redesign Briefing Issue 1, March 2007 (105KB)

Redesign Briefing Issue 2, June 2007 (76KB)

Redesign Overview (64KB)

Redesign Presentation (257KB) overview of the redesign process

Redesign Timeline (35KB)