Forest Environment

Rhode Island 2020 Forest Action Plan sign in a forrest — Forest Action Plan

The 2020 RI Forest Action Plan describes forest resources, identifies challenges and threats to forestland and its management, and establishes goals for investing resources where they can be most effective to achieve conservation goals.

smoke coming from the base of trees in a forest — Forest Fire

This program provides leadership, training, and support to RI communities to reduce threats to life, property, and natural resources from wildland fire, and to minimize the impact of event fires.

2 insects sitting on a penny sitting on a branch — Forest Health

The mission of the Forest Health Program is to protect the health, vigor, and resiliency of our rural and urban forests.

crowd of people standing on a grassy space — Urban and Community Forestry

Urban forestry is the careful and purposeful management of tree populations in urban settings for the purpose of improving the urban environment.

path through a forest — Forest Legacy Program

Congress created the Forest Legacy Program in 1990 to identify and protect important forestland from conversion to other uses.

Person using chainsaw on a fallen branch — Rhode Islands Forest Stewardship Program (FSP)

If you are a woodland owner and would like to know more about your woodland and how to manage it, FSP can help you!

"It is a fact well known to most of you that the timber which once covered our hillsides, ameliorating our climate, beautifying the landscape, protecting our watersheds, and constituting one of the most valuable natural resources of the state, has now nearly all disappeared before the woodsman’s axe. It follows, therefore, that the protection and rapid growth of the succession of sprout and seedlings is a problem of interest and importance to the people."

- Jesse B. Mowry, Forest Commissioner, to the Rhode Island General Assembly; 1st annual report, 1907

map with forest management areas highlighted

Since 1906, when the Rhode Island Forest Commission was first established, the forests of Rhode Island have been considered a valued and significant resource. The Commission, established at a low point in the forest cover of RI, has become RIDEM’s Division of Forest Environment (DFE) and the forests, which that first Commissioner described, recovered through the early 20th century as populations and industry shifted and changed. Since the 1970’s, however, land use and populations have shifted again and Rhode Island’s forests are experiencing development and fragmentation pressures, as well as the effects of a changing climate.

Maintaining a valued environmental, economic and social/recreation resource is a priority for RIDEM and the 40,000 acres of state-owned land, for which DFE shares responsibility with the Division of Fish & Wildlife, is highly valued. But privately-owned land in RI is also significant, benefitting all residents, affecting air and water quality, wildlife habitat and diversity, carbon sequestration, local economics and simply aesthetics. With funding provided through the USDA Forest Service, DEM also delivers several programs to assist RI landowners and residents:

Stewardship - assistance through the FFOS to support landowners managing their forests as working lands

Forest Health - information, education and monitoring introduced and native pests/diseases/plants

Forest Fire - assistance to volunteer fire departments and communities to plan and manage wildfire risk, wildfire training, Firewise®, as well as prescribed burning on DEM management areas

Urban & Community Forestry - assistance and education for communities and stakeholder groups to manage their existing community forest, plan for a successful future community forest, and prepare for emergencies

Forest Legacy - identifies important forestland and provides funding for the purchase of land or conservation easements to prevent conversion of the land to other uses.

Well-managed, healthy forests require management, planning, best management practices, whether on state-owned and managed land, or on private lands and benefits residents, wildlife, watersheds, municipalities and Narragansett Bay.