Forestry For the Bay: A Healthy Woodlands Partnership

Submitted by Craig Highfield,
Coordinator, Forestry for the Bay
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Woodlands provide a wealth of services from filtering water and air to providing wildlife habitat to supplying products and jobs. Approximately 80% of the woodlands in the Chesapeake Bay watershed are privately owned, and they are disappearing at an alarming rate due to development. The number of private woodland owners in this region, however, is increasing rapidly as land changes ownership and is often sub-divided. At the same time state forestry budgets to address their growing needs are shrinking. Forestry for the Bay (FFB) is intended to help fill this service gap.

Forestry for the Bay was initiated through collaboration between the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, US Forest Service and the Chesapeake Bay Program, with support from the Maryland Forest Service, the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry and the Virginia Department of Forestry. The purpose is to promote sound forest management practices as a way to increase the vitality the region’s woodlands and improve the health of local streams, rivers and the Chesapeake Bay.

Forestry for the Bay provides woodland owners technical resources and information on financial incentive programs to help them enhance and manage their properties’ natural areas.  FFB also keeps members informed of news and opportunities regarding woodland management and guides them in the creation of a basic woodland management plan. This free and voluntary program is designed to complement existing forest stewardship programs rather than duplicate them and is available to any landowner from the Chesapeake Bay watershed states (even if they reside outside the basin.) For more information please visit www.forestryforthebay.org or email Craig Highfield at chighfield@chesapeakebay.net.