Virginia Department of Forestry
2014 SWCD Annual Meeting

VDOF Mission:
“We protect and develop healthy, sustainable forest resources for
Virginians”

Our goals in Virginia:
DOF has ~250 employees to meet the following goals:
 Protect the Forest Resource from Wildfire, Insect and Disease, and other Natural Disasters
 Conserve the Forest Land Base
 Protect Water Quality
 Improve and Renew Forest Resources

Protecting Our Forests -Wildfire
 Agency relies on a fleet of:
– 190 – 4X4 Pickup truck-based engines
– 7 – specially equipped Hummers
– 5 – Custom designed wildland brush trucks
– 89 bulldozer/wildland fire plow suppression units
– 2 – Incident Command Vehicles
– 1 - Airplane

Protecting Water Quality
 Harvest Inspection
Program
-Notification Law
 Law Enforcement
-Silvicultural Water
Quality Law
 Education
-Sharp Logger
Program

Protecting Water Quality
 Assist Federal Agencies with
Riparian Forest Buffer Est.
-CREP, CRP, EQIP, VABMP
 Riparian Buffer Tax Credit

Riparian Buffer Tax Credit

 Tax Credit through the Virginia General Assembly
 Eligibility includes individuals, & S-Corporations or Family Partnerships.
 Leaving existing buffers along waterways during a timber harvesting operation
 Requirements include a Forest Stewardship Plan,
35’+ wide buffer, and be retained for 15 years after harvest
 Credit is 25% of value of timber up to $17,500
 Cost is $150 per application

Improve and Renew Forest
Resources – starts with a plan
 If you own a tract of timberland (regardless of size), you should have some type of plan for the future.
 For small tracts (1-50 acres) - a simple one page letter and a map may be enough.
 For larger tracts, (50-1000+ acres) – landowners should have a detailed Forest
Management Plan.

Forest Management Plans should:


List landowner objectives
Divide the tract into parcels based on timber type and age and make recommendations for each one
 Should address timber, wildlife, endangered species, invasive species, soil types, water quality, and historical sites

Forest Management Plans should:
 Include a timeline that tells you what year certain practices need to be done
 Include a detailed map
 Include Consulting Forester, Timber Buyer, and Logger lists if timber harvesting was recommended in the plan

Forest Management Plans
 VDOF – Forest Stewardship Plans for $1.50
/acre or $200 minimum
 Consulting Foresters – Forest Stewardship,
Tree Farm, or Conservation Activity Plans
(CAP 106 Plan) for a fee
 Landowners can receive cost share assistance money from the NRCS for the
CAP 106 Plans.

Other Benefits
 A current Forest Stewardship is required for the following:
-Riparian Buffer Tax Credit
-Before harvesting timber on tracts that have a conservation easement

Other Benefits - continued
 If you are applying for cost share funding through NRCS’s EQIP program, you will receive extra points for practices that were recommended in the plan.

Sustainable Forestry
 Regenerating a forest ASAP following a timber harvest (planting or natural regen)
 Minimizing the impact of forest management activities on water quality
 Maintaining important habitat elements for wildlife and plant species
 Protecting forests with high conservation values

Sustainable Forestry
 Maintaining biological diversity
 Limiting the spread of exotic (non-native) plant species and pests
-tree-of-heaven
-kudzu

Foresters biggest challenge: preventing diameter limit cuts

Many landowners think that clear-cutting is bad.

Loggers may tell them that this is “Sustainable Forestry”

Young yellow poplar stand
-started from a clear-cut

Both stands started from a clear-cut (20/70 years ago)

Deferment cut

Pine Management – Why are we planting pine trees?
 Cheap to establish – $75/acre to plant around 500 trees per acre (seedlings and labor). Cost share programs to assist with costs of establishment and management.
 Thin or total harvest in 20-30 years
 Current FIA data shows that more pine is being harvested than we are growing/year.

Loblolly plantation
3 yr old/20 yr old (thinned)

Cost Share Programs:
VDOF – RT Program
 2014-2015 Program Year
-$25/acre - tree establishment – LLP
-$48/acre - establishment – SLP, PxL
-$70/acre for site prep (chemical)
-$22/acre for herbicide release (air)
-$45/acre for herbicide release (backpack)

Cost Share Programs:
NRCS – EQIP Program
 2015 Program Year
-$60-70/acre - tree establishment
-$70-90/acre for site prep (chemical)
-CAP 106 Plans – $625-$5300
-Riparian Buffer Est - $670-$1600

RT vs. EQIP
 RT – simple to sign up, approve signups until we run out of $$, individual counties have their own allotment, can be used for only one practice
 EQIP – can be used for multiple practices over multiple years, payment rates are higher,

Questions?