In the United States, family forest owners are 21 million strong and steward the largest group of forests in the country – an impressive 39% of all U.S. forestland, which is more than the government and corporations own. This makes this community critical to our nation in achieving its conservation goals and caring for the land that provides so much value to us all. But far too often, these landowners, who want to do the right thing for their land and provide an invaluable societal benefit by stewarding their woods, do not have access to the technical or financial support to care for their forests and maximize their conservation impact. This community is on the front lines, facing the impacts of a changing climate on a daily basis – wildfires, floods, invasive species, and more. They need help and they need it now.

Thankfully, Congress recognized this need, and the climate and conservation potential of small and historically underserved landowners that are far too often left out of the conservation equation. Through the Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. Forest Service received nearly $500 million for the Forest Landowner Support Program (FLS), which provides a historic opportunity for organizations to partner with states to equip underserved and small-acreage forest landowners with the tools to care for their lands and maximize their conservation impact.

Through traditional federal and state government programs, landowners throughout the country can access technical and financial assistance to implement sustainable forestry management. These programs are critical to serving landowners who historically miss out on these types of services. But to truly unlock their value for climate mitigation, biodiversity protection, clean water, recreation, and sustainable wood production, half a billion in funding is just a down payment. It is estimated that family forest owners alone have the potential to mitigate one billion tonnes of carbon – but only if they have access to the funding to make that happen.

That’s where FLS – and the power of public-private partnerships – come in.

Through FLS, states can partner with projects like the Family Forest Carbon Program to unlock landowners’ access to the voluntary carbon market, opening the door to public and private investment in their forests and local economies.

Thankfully, the government isn’t the only entity that recognizes the value of sustainably managed family forests. Corporations, institutions, and communities worldwide are starting to see these landowners' immense potential. Up until recently, these landowners were only able to monetize their land through timber and recreation. Now, with the emergence of the voluntary carbon market, forest owners can create even more financial and conservation value through capturing and storing carbon in their trees. This helps landowners diversify their revenue streams, complementing timber and recreation with profits from carbon sequestration.

Through FLS, states can partner with projects like the Family Forest Carbon Program to unlock landowners’ access to the voluntary carbon market, opening the door to public and private investment in their forests and local economies. This means leveraging not only the $500 million government investment in FLS, but also billions of dollars in private sector investments in carbon projects that help family forest owners to steward their lands, enabling initial federal funding to go even further and for longer. What would typically be one-off government grants for a few years turn into decades of technical and financial support for landowners to care for the health and wellbeing of their forests, increasing the value of their lands for generations.

Public-private partnerships leverage the power of public resources and private finance to advance our collective impact.

FLS funding empowers states to increase their capacity, efficiency, reach, and impact. With this support, partnering states can focus their staff capacity on working directly with landowners, forgoing the need to hire additional staff or take on the administrative burden of issuing cost share payments, monitoring, and other tasks. This public-private partnership also lengthens the time that landowners are provided support. State programs alone typically provide three to five years of funding support to landowners. But partnering with projects leveraging private investment expands their support to the 20 to 30 years that landowners are enrolled in the project.

Partnerships like these also play a critical role in empowering local organizations to advance their conservation impact in communities that need the most support. When partnering with projects like FFCP, states benefit from the existing partners and networks on the ground that have experience working with underserved and underrepresented landowners. Some local organizations can even work across state lines to expand their impact and improve knowledge sharing throughout an entire region, furthering their conservation impact. In all these cases, more landowners will benefit by receiving technical and financial support to care for the lands, which improves the health and wellbeing of all woodlands across participating states.

In a time when family forest owners are seeing the impact of a changing climate on their lands, it is more important than ever that they receive the support they need to protect the health of our nation’s woodlands. Public-private partnerships like those available through FLS leverage the power of public resources and private finance to advance our collective impact. It’s a win for landowners, for the country, and for the planet.

Are you a state forester or conservation organization interested in learning more? Contact Beth Riley at briley@forestfoundation.org.