March 26, 2013
Honorable Tom Vilsack
Secretary of Agriculture
1400 Independence Avenue
Washington, DC 20250
Chief Tom Tidwell
United States Forest Service
1621 North Kent St.
6-RPE, Chief’s Office
Arlington, VA 22209
Secretary Vilsack and Chief Tidwell,
On behalf of America’s 3,000 conservation districts and 17,000 elected and appointed supervisors, thank you for your leadership in establishing a full roster for the Forest Resource Coordinating Committee
(FRCC). The National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) is eager to begin working with the
Committee on a wide variety of needs for on-the-ground forest conservation.
Conservation districts are local units of government established under state law to carry out natural resource management programs at the local level. Districts work with millions of cooperating landowners and operators to help them manage and protect land and water resources on all private lands and many public lands in the United States.
Local conservation districts are actively engaged with forestry conservation issues on-the-ground. Many conservation districts employ forestry staff to assist private landowners with forestry needs on their lands. This includes identifying the best programs for landowners to participate, such as Forest
Stewardship, EQIP or Forest Legacy.
On a national level, NACD remains committed to assisting our partners—government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and private industry—to help tackle forest concerns on the ground, including forest health, disease, timber harvests, and restoration. NACD uses communication tools like
Forestry Notes to share information about programs, such as the Forest Stewardship Program and EQIP, with landowners interested in actively managing their forestland. NACD is also one of the four member organizations of the national Joint Forestry Team (JFT), and recently contributed to discussion on how the JFT may be able to support the FRCC in future efforts.
Conservation districts are thankful to have permanent representation on the FRCC. Doug Rushton, a
Board Chairman from Thurston Conservation District in Washington State, is the current representative for NACD to the FRCC. Doug has helped to guide his local district as well as NACD on forestry issues for close to a decade. Doug has served as a member of our Forest Resources Policy Group and we’re confident his experience working with forestry partners at the state and national level will serve the committee well.
Thank you both for your continued leadership with these complex forestry issues. We look forward to working closely with the FRCC and helping expand locally-led forest conservation.
Yours in Conservation,
Earl J. Garber
President
National Headquarters
509 Capitol Court, NE, Washington, DC 20002
Phone: (202) 547-6223 Fax: (202) 547-6450 www.nacdnet.org