Conserving Nearly 19 million acres of forest

New York State is fortunate to have nearly 19 million acres of forestland—almost 1 acre for every state resident—covering more than 60% of our state. In part, due to its size, NY continues to have the most total forestland in the Northeast. According to recent data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA), there was a slight net forest loss in NY of about 1% from 2012 to 2018. This marks the first decline in forest cover since the turn of the twentieth century.

Several strategies outlined in the Plan are designed to maintain a no net loss of forests in New York in the years ahead. Our strategies to enhance NY’s stewardship efforts for sustainable forest management and to regenerate forests will help NY conserve and manage working forest landscapes for multiple values and uses. Many of these initiatives are focused on assisting NY’s private forest owners with sustainably managing the nearly 14 million acres of private forestland in our state.

Protecting forest health from evolving threats

The combination of numerous stressors such as invasive species, increasingly severe and frequent weather events, a changing phenological calendar, unsustainable management practices and/or recreation, and localized imbalances of wildlife populations, along with outright loss of forests to development or agriculture, all threaten to undermine the health of New York’s forests. In many cases, these stressors may increase or accelerate the damage and complicate the diagnosis and management of agents that impact forest health.

The Plan lays out several strategies that utilize a variety of tools (purchase of lands and easements, partnerships, community forestry, etc.) to ensure our forests remain resilient, adaptive, ecologically intact living systems. Continued research, assistance to private forest owners, targeted forest fire management, and the implementation of indigenous knowledge will also aid in achieving this goal.

Enhancing the public benefits from trees and forests

New York’s forests generate life sustaining clean air and water, contribute to our mental and physical health and happiness, sequester immense amounts of carbon, and supply us with food, shelter, and renewable economic goods. As changes in our environment and climate accelerate and threaten our access to these benefits, our forests become increasingly important, with beneficial impacts well beyond our state borders. Enhancing public benefits from trees and forests is inherent in every strategy of the Plan and will rely on community engagement, local and legal efforts in support of forestry, and the promotion of sustainable forestry and best management practices.