|
Arkansas Forest Legacy Program
Description and History of the Forest Legacy Program
The purpose of the Forest Legacy Program (FLP) is to protect
forest areas that are threatened by conversion to non-forest
uses. The protection is accomplished through fee simple title or
conservation easement purchases. The conservation easement
allows the seller to retain the right to manage the forest and
sell timber while protecting the forest from conversion to
non-forest uses. For these purchases both the seller and buyer
must be willing to make the transaction. The Forest Legacy
Program provides federal funding for up to 75 percent of the
cost of conservation easements or fee acquisition.
Prompted primarily by threats to northeastern forests, the
program, established in the 1990 Farm Bill, was initially
restricted to Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, and
Washington State, but is now potentially open to any state with
threatened forest land. Arkansas became a participating state on
October 1, 2004. Governor Mike Huckabee appointed the Arkansas
Forestry Commission (AFC) as the Lead Agency to administer the
FLP in Arkansas.
Types of Assistance
The Forest Legacy Program provides federal funds for:
·
Fee acquisition.
·
Purchase of conservation
easements.
·
Surveys, title work, and other
activities to facilitate donations of land or easements for
FLP purposes.
·
State FLP planning and
administration.
Although FLP funds may be used for of either conservation
easements or fee title purchase, nationwide the program has
focused heavily on conservation easements as states have shown
the most interest in protecting conservation values while also
maintaining economic uses including timber harvesting. However,
the Arkansas Forest Legacy program favors fee simple title
purchases because it reduces monitoring and administrative
issues.
Eligible Land
To participate in the Forest Legacy Program (FLP), Arkansas
prepared an "Assessment of Need" plan (AON) that was approved by
the USDA Forest Service. The AON documents the need for a Forest
Legacy Program, establishes eligibility criteria, sets
guidelines, and identifies priority Forest Legacy Areas (FLA)
within the Arkansas for protection. The AON was prepared under
the coordination of the Arkansas Forestry Commission.
The AFC worked in cooperation with a
"State Forest Stewardship Coordinating Committee (SFSCC)," made
up of representatives of various groups interested in forest
conservation, and with the Arkansas public to produce the AON
document before it was submitted to the Chief of the USDA Forest
Service. To review the Forest
Legacy Assessment of Need, click here.
To be eligible for the Forest Legacy Program, proposed
tract(s) must, at a minimum, meet the following criteria:
-
Be available for conservation
easement or fee simple sale by willing seller(s).
-
Lie within the Forest Legacy
Areas. See Figure 1. for the Arkansas FLAs.
-
Be environmentally important
forest areas that can be effectively protected and managed
which have important forest values such as forest based
economies, water quality, ground water recharge potential,
wildlife, biological diversity/integrity of landscapes,
connection to existing forested conservation areas,
aesthetics, geological values, cultural resources,
educational, and recreational values.
-
Be threatened by present or future
conversion to non-forest uses as viewed by the state.
-
Be a priority of the State Forest
Stewardship Coordinating Committee and the Arkansas Forestry
Commission.
-
The seller(s) must secure 25% cost
share for the proposed project as described in the Cost Share
section below.
Figure 1.
After the landowner completes an application (refer to the
Arkansas Forest Legacy Program Landowner Participation
Information section), a proposal is prepared and submitted to
the SFSCC for prioritization/approval. The proposed project is
ranked according to criteria established in the AON. The SFSCC
will then recommend proposed tract(s) for submission to the
Arkansas Forestry Commission. The AFC will submit a maximum of 3
proposals per submission cycle to the USDA Forest Service to be
competitively ranked against other states’ projects nationwide
and then be considered for funding in the President’s Budget.
The projects may not exceed $10 million in total cost or $7
million for individual projects. The proposed project(s) are
ranked against other states’ projects according to environmental
importance, threatened per the Arkansas AON definition of
threatened, strategic: connects with other protected lands, and
project readiness. The highest ranked proposals are included in
the President’s Annual Budget. Congress then determines/approves
the final allocation of funds for the proposals.
Cost-Sharing
The Forest Service requires that 25 percent of the total
program costs come from nonfederal sources, which may include
state and local governments, land trusts or other nonprofit
organizations, or individuals. With grants to states for
specific projects the cost-sharing becomes a condition of the
grant and must occur within the life of the multi-year grant.
In practice, most projects are more highly leveraged, as
Forest Legacy dollars are limited and states attempt to devise
projects that will stretch the federal dollar. The nonfederal
contribution may come from matching funds or in-kind
contributions and may include direct and indirect costs
associated with planning, acquisition, capital improvement,
management, or administrative activities.
Donations of land or conservation easements may count toward
the match. Such donations must be documented. Donations must
meet the following criteria to qualify for a match:
·
The donation must meet the
objectives of the state AON;
·
It must be at least partly within
the boundaries of a designated Forest Legacy Area;
·
The property must be permanently
protected;
·
The deed must require that any
proceeds resulting from a sale or exchange of a conservation
easement be used in a manner consistent with the easement's
purposes;
·
The donation must not have been
used to match any other FLP project;
·
The state lead agency must approve
using the donation as a match; and,
·
The donor must request at the time
of transfer that the donation value be used as an FLP match.
General Acquisition Procedures
If FLP funds are granted for a proposed project, the state
will receive grant funds and acquire land or easements. The
state or local government must hold any land or conservation
easements acquired by state FLP grant funds. The state’s FLP
grant funds are targeted for the specific proposed project.
Whenever FLP funds are used to acquire a tract, federal
acquisition procedures must be followed. The most significant of
these are:
·
Federal appraisal standards must
be met, the landowner must be informed of the fair market
value of the easement or title, and the sale of the property
must be voluntary;
·
Title must be free and
unencumbered or title insurance must be secured; and,
·
No more than fair market value may
be paid for a purchase. Fair market value is determined by an
appraisal conducted according to the Uniform Appraisal
Standards for Federal Land Acquisitions.
For every acquisition, the state must also determine whether
mineral rights need to be acquired to protect the conservation
values at stake. Where a landowner retains the right to harvest
timber under a conservation easement, the landowner must enter
into a forest management agreement with the appropriate state or
local government agency before the easement is finalized. Future
modifications to such plans may be approved by the responsible
state agency.
Arkansas FLP Process Timelines
The following are the significant dates and periods for the
Arkansas FLP process:
|
FLP landowner application
submission deadline |
July 31 – Calendar Year when
application was submitted |
|
State (SFSCC) prioritizes
applications and submits to USFS Southern Region |
Fall – Calendar Year when
application was submitted |
|
USFS Southern Region submits
projects to National Review Panel |
November - Calendar Year when
application was submitted |
|
National Review Panel |
January – Calendar Year when
application was submitted plus 1 |
|
Congressional Action |
Summer/Fall – Calendar Year
when application was submitted plus 1 |
|
Federal Budget Passes |
Winter – Calendar Year when
application was submitted plus 1 |
|
Award Project Grant |
Spring – Calendar Year when
application was submitted plus 2 |
How to Apply for the Forest Legacy Program
To apply for FLP in Arkansas, the seller(s) need to do the
following:
Decide whether a Fee-Simple Title or a Conservation
Easement transaction is appropriate.
Provide items listed in Landowner Participation
Information Section.
Obtain a FLP Qualified Appraisal and 25% Cost Share.
Landowner Participation Information will be submitted to:
Jim
Jolley, Forest Legacy Coordinator
Arkansas Forestry Commission
3821
West Roosevelt Road
Little
Rock, AR 72204
If you have any questions about the Arkansas FLP, contact Jim
Jolley at 501-296-1865, or email jim.jolley@arkansas.gov.
Landowner
Participation Information
Landowners who wish to participate in the Forest Legacy
Program are asked to submit the following information:
Name, address and phone number of applicant
landowner.
All other owners of record for this tract, and
their addresses.
Name, address and phone number of authorized
agent representing landowner(s) if applicable.
Location of the property.
If the landowner intends to reserve rights to
forestry uses or other resource management activities, a copy
or reference to the Arkansas approved landowner Forest
Stewardship Plan or multi-resource management plan.
List of significant scenic, natural,
recreational, wildlife, timber and other resource values
contained on the property.
Identification of all dams dumps or waste
disposal sites on the property.
Signed statement giving the U. S. Forest
Service and the Arkansas Forestry Commission permission to
enter the property for review and appraisal purposes.
Legal description.
List any encumbrances or liens existing on the
property including, but not limited to contracts, leases, or
outstanding rights not of record.
Copy of plat or survey map of the property, if
existing. If only a portion of the property is being offered,
identify it on a plat showing the portion offered in the
context of the entire tract.
Tract acreage and total number of acres of
forests and cleared/open land.
List of existing permanent improvements on the
tract, including houses, barns, lakes, ponds, dams, wells,
roads, and other structures, and total acres occupied by
improvements.
For more information please
contact the AFC or visit the Land Trust Alliance "Guide to the
Forest Legacy Program" website http://www.lta.org/publicpolicy/flweb.htm |
