(202) 205-8333

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.

This Northeastern Area March 30, 2011 webinar includes training for recipients and program managers on the new grant narrative format for "core" funds (the first portion of the webinar) as well as some information on subrecipient reporting, the performance progress report, equipment purchases, and close-out policy (from the NA guidance and perspective).

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America’s state and private forests are served by a sophisticated, ecologically-responsive suite of programs that foster stewardship and sustainability. Encompassing two-thirds of the vast landscape of America’s forests, state and private lands provide public benefits such as clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat, outdoor recreation, and about seventy percent of the nation’s wood supply.

The State and Private Forestry (S&PF) organization of the U.S. Forest Service helps to ensure that forest landowners have the best technical, educational, and financial assistance available to help them achieve their objectives in an environmentally-beneficial way.  This federal investment leverages the capacity of state forestry agencies and their partners to manage state and private lands and produce ecological,
social and economic benefits for the American people.

Updated Info Redesign Updates January 2008 April 2008 June 2008 November 2008 February 2009 July 2009 November 2009 May 2010 SPF Annual Reports 2011 SPF Annual Report 2011 SPF Annual Report Appendix 2009 SPF Annual Report 2008 Redesign Report Card 2008 Press Release 2007 Redesign Report Card Performance Measure Performance Measure Principles Memo on SPF Core Performance Measures New Performance Measures Table

Regardless of ownership,forests across the country areexperiencing significant challenges to ecosystem health: tree mortality is on the rise due to disease and invasive pests; wildfire continues to increase in size and intensity; ecosystems struggle to adapt to climate change disturbances; and forests are being permanently converted to non-forest uses at a rate of 1 million acres per year.

Conceived in 2007, “Redesigning” is a new approach within State and Private Forestry that is improving the ability to identify the greatest threats to forest sustainability and accomplish meaningful change in high priority areas. The U.S. Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters are applying progressive competitive strategies to a portion of the State and Private Forestry allocation. This approach helps to address current forestry opportunities and challenges on-the-ground while demonstrating the value of a public investment in state and private landscapes.

The 2008 Farm Bill codified the main components of Redesign into law by amending the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act. The three national themes are now set in law as national priorities and the State Assessments and Strategies are required and are central to S&PF program delivery.

“Redesigning” State and Private Forestry reflects a mix of competitive and formula funding Competitive projects are administered under a model of granting funds to result in a targeted, positive impact on the landscape while leveraging state capacity with strategic federal dollars.

State Assessments & Resource Strategies

The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, also known as the 2008 Farm Bill, was enacted into law in June 2008 and provides new guidance on how the State and Private Forestry program will identify and prioritize national, regional, and state forest management goals. Each state is required to complete a State-wide Assessment and Strategy for Forest Resources. The Assessments provide an analysis of forest conditions and trends in the state and delineate priority rural and urban forest landscape areas. The Resource Strategies provide long-term plans for investing state, federal, and other resources to where it can most effectively stimulate or leverage desired action and engage multiple partners.

The State Assessments and Strategies will be used by states to target program delivery and develop competitive proposals for addressing priority landscape areas and issues.  S&PF programs will respond directly to the National Themes as well as be informed by a National Assessment tool. that will offer a geospatial web-based decision support system to inform state, regional, and national efforts. This product will put programs and resources in context on a national scale and will be used to demonstrate and communicate results to partners in Congress and other federal agencies.

For more information on the S&PF Redesign effort, please contact Debbie Pressman (Forest Service, dpressman@fs.fed.us).

-->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 (FY08), a percentage of the S&PF allocation was invested in projects selected through a competitive process. These processes are 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. Each geographic region designs their competitive process to address geographically significant issues and landscapes as well as the broad themes and direction provided at the national level.

Completed annually, the Competitive Allocation Process is reviewed and assessed by a team of S&PF and state forestry representatives to identify any changes that may be needed for the following year.

-->Click here FY '13 National Guidance for the Competitive Resource Allocation
-->Click here FY '12 National Guidance for the Competitive Resource Allocation
-->Click here FY '11 National Guidance for the Competitive Resource Allocation
-->Click here FY '10 National Guidance for the Competitive Resource Allocation
-->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 Director, ian.macfarlane@mail.wvu.edu,
(202) 526-4804
• Southern Group of State Foresters
Mike Zupko, Executive Director, sgsfexec@zup-co-inc.com
• Western Forestry Leadership Coalition/Council of Western State Foresters
Angela Farr, Program Manager, afarr@fs.fed.us ;
(406) 329-3521, 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 list of questions and answers concerning the SPF Redesign effort. Please note that there may be updated information since the passage of the 2009 Farm Bill. Please contact us with further questions.

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)