NEWS RELEASE
USDA Forest Service
Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry
11 Campus Boulevard, Suite 200, Newtown Spuare PA 19073
Phone: 610-557-4103; Fax: 610-557-4011;
Web Site:http://www.na.fs.fed.us/

Release No. NA-08-01
E-mail: ktackett@fs.fed.us

Northeastern Area Year in Forestry Released

NEWTOWN SQUARE, PA. — Helping forest landowners understand how they can reduce losses from wildfire and providing emergency response system training to other federal and state agencies were two of many accomplishments cited in the recently released USDA Forest Service Northeastern Area fiscal year 2005 report, The Year in Forestry.

“I am proud of our 2005 accomplishments,” said Northeastern Area Director Kathryn Maloney. “Working closely with state forestry agencies and other cooperators, we’re providing effective public service, promoting sustainable forest management, and enhancing the capacity of forests to provide public benefits including clean water and healthy forest ecosystems.” 
 
The Northeastern Area, part of the Forest Service’s State and Private Forestry organization, promotes sustainable forest management of more than 170 million acres of state and privately-owned forests, one of the largest concentrations of privately owned forests in the world. More than 120 million people – almost half the Nation’s population – live within and next to this forest resource, including almost 5 million individual forest landowners.
 
Benefits provided by healthy forests in this area are significant:

• More than 50 million people throughout the Northeastern Area drink water from rivers and reservoirs protected and purified by forests. 
• Forests also reduce air pollution, provide shelter for wildlife, support forest-based recreation, provide thousands of jobs, and generate more than $37 billion in revenues each year.

The 43-page report cited dozens of Northeastern Area accomplishments during fiscal year 2005, including:

• Enrolling all 20 states within its territory in the Forest Legacy Program.  This program protects important forest land threatened by development.
• Using the Early Detection Rapid Response system to detect a previously unknown exotic insect in Massachusetts.
• Establishing Grey Towers in Milford, Pa., as the first National Historic Site managed by the Forest Service.
• Bringing nearly 805,000 more acres of privately owned forests under stewardship management.
• Awarding $89 million in grants and provided a wide range of technical assistance to landowners, state agencies and other partners across the region.

Despite these and other achievements, Maloney points to many challenges that lay ahead. For example, in rapidly growing areas more than 100 acres of forest are lost daily to development pressures. Also, invasive species like the emerald ash borer beetle are damaging and killing millions of trees a year. 

“There’s plenty of work ahead,” she added.

The Northeastern Area is headquartered in Newtown Square, Pa., with field offices in Morgantown, W. Va., Durham, N.H., and St. Paul, Minn. It also administers the Grey Towers National Historic Site in Milford, Pa.