The Commonwealth and the United States Department of Agriculture signed an agreement meant to boost forest health across the state.
The agreement with the USDA’s Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service is meant to help better protect Kentucky’s lands and waters. That includes teaming up to manage health risks and natural disasters, protecting wildlife habitats, water quality and air quality, and helping communities plan for wildfires.
“This is just an opportunity to shine the light on the needs of stewardship of our forests in the state,” said Kentucky state forester Brandon Howard. “Maybe bring people to the table who aren't typical partners to try to come up with new solutions, because we're always going to have new issues identified.”
That includes getting multiple state agencies on the same page and working towards common forest restoration goals.
“Really one thing we can do, because most of the state's forest land is in private ownership, is empowering those private landowners with knowledge. For example, forest health, we got insects and diseases that come in. The (invasive species) emerald ash borer has ripped across our state and is now Western Kentucky.”
Kentucky is the final state to enter a shared stewardship agreement with the USDA’s Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service. But it has the most state agencies signed to the agreement in the USDA’s Southern Region.
That includes Kentucky’s Labor Cabinet, Energy and Environment Cabinet, Tourism, Arts, and Heritage Cabinet, Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
“Really, it was the commitment to work together,” Howard said. “When we put our efforts together, we're gonna get farther than kind of working separately to look for common goals.”
Forests cover almost half of Kentucky’s land mass, spanning more than 12 million acres across the Commonwealth.
