Description: The purpose of the Community Forest and Open Space Program (CFP) is to achieve community benefits by establishing community forests through 50/50 financial assistance competative grant awards to local governments, Indian tribes, and nonprofit organizations. Grant funds are used by successful applicants to acquire and protect private forestlands. Community forest benefits are specified in the authorizing statute (16 U.S.C. 2103(d) & 2109(e)) and final rule (36 CFR Part 230), including: economic benefits from sustainable forest management and tourism; environmental benefits from natural resource conservation such as storm water management, clean air and water, and wildlife habitat; forest-based educational programs, model forest stewardship activities, and recreational opportunities. Public access to the community forests is required and intended to enhance public health and well-being. In addition, the program authorizes funds to State Foresters and equivalent Indian tribe officials for technical assistance to implement community forest projects.
Description: The goal of the Chiefs’ Joint Landscape Restoration Partnership is to improve the health and resiliency of forest ecosystems where public and private lands meet through a partnership between the Forest Service and NRCS.
The vision is to restore lands across large landscapes regardless of ownership, reduce wildfire threats to communities and landowners, protect water quality and supply, and improve habitat for at-risk species seamlessly across public and private lands.
To accomplish this, Forest Service and NRCS are launching a coordinated effort on priority forested watersheds to deliver on-the-ground accomplishments by leveraging technical and financial resources, and coordinating activities on adjacent public and private lands. The priority watersheds chosen had existing local partnerships and work in progress. By leveraging technical and financial resources and coordinating activities on adjacent public and private lands, conservation work in the watersheds will be more efficient and effective.
The agencies are reviewing additional sites for the partnership to collaborate in the future and will continue to capitalize on NRCS and FS overlying priorities and programs.
Name: National Forest Foundation Treasured Landscapes
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Description: Chartered by Congress, the National Forest Foundation was created in 1993 with a simple mission: bring people together to restore and enhance our National Forests and Grasslands.
The National Forest Foundation, chartered by Congress, engages Americans in community-based and national programs that promote the health and public enjoyment of the 193-million-acre National Forest System, and administers private gifts of funds and land for the benefit of the National Forests.
As the nonprofit partner of the U.S. Forest Service, we work with the agency and thousands of Americans each year to promote the health and public enjoyment of our 193-million-acre National Forest System. We believe that communities should play a leading role in determining the future of our National Forests and Grasslands, so we focus our efforts on connecting these communities, and the people who comprise them, to the tools, knowledge, and funding to become active and devoted stewards of this incredible public estate.
Our National Forests and Grasslands are at the core of America's natural riches, and yet, today these treasures are threatened by unprecedented challenges. Working with the U.S. Forest Service and partners, our goal is to leverage our best thinking, conservation capacity, and community action to measurably improve the health of our National Forests and Grasslands.
Description: The goal of the Chiefs’ Joint Landscape Restoration Partnership is to improve the health and resiliency of forest ecosystems where public and private lands meet through a partnership between the Forest Service and NRCS.
The vision is to restore lands across large landscapes regardless of ownership, reduce wildfire threats to communities and landowners, protect water quality and supply, and improve habitat for at-risk species seamlessly across public and private lands.
To accomplish this, Forest Service and NRCS are launching a coordinated effort on priority forested watersheds to deliver on-the-ground accomplishments by leveraging technical and financial resources, and coordinating activities on adjacent public and private lands. The priority watersheds chosen had existing local partnerships and work in progress. By leveraging technical and financial resources and coordinating activities on adjacent public and private lands, conservation work in the watersheds will be more efficient and effective.
The agencies are reviewing additional sites for the partnership to collaborate in the future and will continue to capitalize on NRCS and FS overlying priorities and programs.
Description: The Fire Learning Network (FLN) engages dozens of multi-agency, community-based projects to accelerate the restoration of landscapes that depend on fire to sustain native plant and animal communities. By restoring this balance, the ecological, economic and social values of the landscapes can be maintained, and the threat of catastrophic wildfire can be reduced. Collaborative planning, implementation, adaptive management and the sharing of lessons learned are at the core of the FLN. Workshops, peer learning and innovative fire training are just a few of the mechanisms the network uses.
While FLN projects have often worked from the wildlands in toward human communities, the new Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network—based on the FLN model—works from communities outward into the surrounding landscape. Participants in these complementary networks all have a common desire to learn, as well as to share their results and insights with one another to overcome barriers to sustainable and integrated ecological, economic and social solutions.
To stay up to date with network activities, subscribe to the bi-weekly FLN Networker (email lrank @ tnc.org) and to the FAC Learning Network blog (http://facnetwork.org).
- See more at: https://www.conservationgateway.org/ConservationPractices/FireLandscapes/FireLearningNetwork/Pages/fire-learning-network.aspx#sthash.2sBg8uIt.dpuf
Description: This layer, and viewer, can help find the location of any park or protected open space in the United States. By zooming in on this map you can see detailed boundaries and all nearby protected lands, and analyze these data to inform decisions about conservation, recreation or land use planning.
Description: The Forest Legacy Program is a partnership between participating States and the USDA Forest Service to identify and protect environmentally important forest land that is threatened by conversion to nonforest uses.
Conservation easements are the primary tool used to achieve this goal. Priority is given to lands that have important scenic or recreational values; riparian areas; fish and wildlife values, including threatened and endangered species; or other ecological values.
Description: NRCS has implemented a broad spectrum of initiatives since January of 2009. These initiatives enable NRCS to more effectively address priority natural resource concerns by delivering systems of practices, primarily to the most vulnerable lands within geographic focus areas.
Through these initiatives, NRCS seeks to accomplish: Conservation beyond boundaries—Landscape-scale natural resource concerns, such as species conservation and water quality, cannot be treated effectively based on geo-political boundaries. NRCS recognizes that natural resource concerns transcend farm, county, and state boundaries.
A science-based approach — Findings from the multi-agency Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) indicate the most effective way to increase protection of natural resources is to target conservation to the most vulnerable or valuable areas and to apply a systems rather than a practice-by-practice approach. Within individual initiatives, the best available university and government science resources are used to define initiative targeting approaches.
Build on existing locally-led efforts and partnerships — NRCS seeks to maximize the success of initiatives by leveraging partner interest and resources through programmatic and other tools.
Regulatory certainty for agricultural producers — Where applicable, NRCS is working with regulators so agricultural producers can have certainty that the voluntary conservation systems they implement are consistent with current and potential regulation, as well as sustained agricultural production.
Description: Critical Conservation Areas (CCAs) are designated by the Secretary of Agriculture and represent an opportunity for many stakeholders to come together at a regional level to address common natural resource goals while maintaining or improving agricultural productivity. Partners, working closely with producers and communities, define and propose projects that will achieve regional natural resource goals while also meeting complementary local conservation priorities.
Description: This data set is a complete digital hydrologic unit boundary layer of the Subbasin (8-digit) 4th level for the entire United States. This data set consists of geo-referenced digital data and associated attributes created in accordance with the "Federal Guidelines, Requirements, and Procedures for the National Watershed Boundary Dataset; Chapter 3 of Section A, Federal Standards, Book 11, Collection and Delineation of Spatial Data; Techniques and Methods 11-A3" (04/01/2009). http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/water/watersheds/?cid=nrcs143_021630 . Polygons are attributed with hydrologic unit codes for 4th level sub-basins, 5th level watersheds, 6th level subwatersheds, name, size, downstream hydrologic unit, type of watershed, non-contributing areas and flow modification. The data is currently updated through the USGS National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) Program and replicated to NRCS twice per year.
Copyright Text: Funding and support for the Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD) were provided by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the United States Geological Survey. Representatives from the U.S. Geological Survey and Environmental Protection Agency contributed a substantial amount of time and salary towards quality review and updating of the dataset in order to meet the Federal Standards for Delineation of Hydrologic Unit Boundaries.