Forests this year in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Puerto Rico all sustained damage from either hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan or Jeanne.

The funding will be used by the Forest Service and States for on- the-ground work to restore thousands of acres of trees, hundreds of miles of trails and roads, dozens of recreation and administrative sites, bridges and other infrastructure as well as endangered species habitat. The funds will also be used to reduce the risk of potential insect, disease and invasive weed infestations. In addition, because the southeast now faces an increased risk of wildland fire due to downed trees and other hazardous fuels, the money will be used for wildland fire management.

North Carolina will receive of total of more than $47 million for restoring damaged roads, trails and facilities in the National Forest System and for stabilizing soils in areas affected by landslides and debris flows as well as stream channels that have experienced excessive amounts of erosion and/or deposition.

Florida will receive a total of more than $40 million for its national, state and private forest resources. The money will be used for state and volunteer fire resources, debris removal and repair to roads, trails, particularly the Florida National Scenic Trail, and recreational facilities in Floridas national forests.

Alabama will receive more than $19 million for recovery of forest resources, including money to fund additional state and volunteer fire resources. The remaining more than $5 million will go to Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Puerto Rico for work on national forests.

Because the Southeast now faces an increased risk of wildland fire due to increased amount of downed trees and other hazardous fuels, the money will also go to support wildland fire management efforts and to help states clean up debris that could otherwise fuel future wildland fires.

Recovery work is expected to take up to 18 months.

Veneman praised the unprecedented support given by the USDA Forest Service to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and states in the federal hurricane response effort in addition to these disaster funds.

"The USDA Forest Service are experts in helping manage disasters. They committed more than 1,200 personnel from its wildland fire community to manage highly complex receiving and distribution centers, base camps, logistics staging areas in hurricane-stricken states," said Veneman. "This effort represents the broadest application of the Incident Command System to a non-fire natural disaster."

The Forest Service uses the incident management structure to manage a human-caused or natural occurrence that requires emergency service action to prevent or reduce the loss of life or damage to property or natural resources. Costs per date for the wildland fire community hurricane response effort are estimated at $25 million.

More information can be found at www.fs.fed.us.