The Society of American Foresters (SAF) testified today before the House Agriculture Committee in support of continuing the Forest Land Enhancement Program (FLEP), a program designed to help family forestland owners manage their forests.

The Society of American Foresters (SAF) testified today before the House Agriculture Committee in support of continuing the Forest Land Enhancement Program (FLEP), a program designed to help family forestland owners manage their forests.

Gary Nakamura, an extension forester from Redding, California, and a member of the SAF Council, SAFs governing body, said that education and cost-share assistance programs such as FLEP are vital to supporting the nations family-owned forests.

"There are a variety of mechanisms to promote sustainable management on family-owned forests so they continue to provide desired needs and values," says Nakamura. "One of the more effective mechanisms is to provide technical, educational, and financial assistance to these family forestland owners, as Congress authorized with the creation of the Forest Land Enhancement Program in the 2002 Farm Bill."

Nakamura noted that no funds have been released for FLEP this year-even those funds specifically allocated by Congress after they were borrowed to cover wildfire suppression costs. SAF believes family-owned forests are important enough to warrant continuation of the program.

"SAF strongly believes that program funding should continue so we can continue to meet the needs of the more than nine million nonindustrial private forest landowners, mostly family forestland owners, throughout the country," said Nakamura. "One year of program implementation is not an adequate time frame to judge whether the program is fulfilling its goals."

Because privately owned nonindustrial forestland constitutes the majority of this countrys forested land, its management is of great interest and concern to the forestry profession. SAF strongly believes that both public and private investment in these forests is necessary to ensure sustainable management of these resources and ultimately meet societys needs.

Nonindustrial private forestland constitutes 362 million acres, or more than half of all forestland in the United States. Families and individuals own approximately 75 percent of this forestland.

"Clearly, proper management of family forests is important to maintaining landscape-scale healthy forest conditions and valued forest ecosystem services of watershed, wildlife habitat, aesthetics/open space, and recreation," says Nakamura. "We cannot afford to ignore this important resource."

The Society of American Foresters is a nonprofit organization that represents more than 17,000 professional foresters and natural resource professionals. It is the scientific and educational association representing the profession of forestry in the United States. The Societys primary objective is to advance the science, technology, education, and practice of professional forestry for the benefit of society.