Forest Action Plan (SFAP)

With the 2008 Farm Bill, Congress tasked the states and territories with assessing the condition of trees and forests within their boundaries, regardless of ownership, and developing strategies to: conserve working forest landscapes, protect forests from harm, and enhance public benefits from trees and forests.

Over 175 million acres of forest—close to 23 percent of forestland in the nation—are found in the heavily populated Northeastern and Midwestern regions of the United States. Increasingly complex issues, forest ownership patterns, and population distribution serve as the backdrop for forest management and conservation in the Northeast and Midwest.

The first Forest Action Plans were completed in 2010 by all 59 states and territories—describe forest resources, identify challenges and threats to forestland and its management, and establish goals for investing federal, state, local, and private resources where they can be most effective in achieving state and national conservation goals.

The Forest Action Plans must be updated every 10 years and, in 2020, States updated their Forest Action Plans for USDA-USFS approval. The 2020 SFAP is a direct linkage between the Federal funding, that provides the necessary financial support for much of the Division of Forest Environment’s forest management programs, and the Division’s on-the-ground implementation of these funds. Rhode Island’s SFAP includes an updated assessment of its forest resources, and goals, objectives and strategies of the Division of Forest Environment’s Programs to address forest management issues on state and private land.

Forest Action Plan Executive Summary PDF file, less than 1