Florida forests get help from state agency

From Friday's Tallahassee Democrat:
Over 47% of Florida is covered in forest, and is owned by about 300,000 private landowners--200,000 of those owning less than 9 acres each. With 1,200 acres of forest lost each week to development, the Florida Division of Forestry is stepping in to help conserve Florida's large tracts through by helping landowners become more aware of the benefits and opportunities of responsibly managing the state's forests.

The situation today is that those 500 acres that one Floridian owned and managed years ago is now broken down into many smaller parcels owned by different individuals, maybe absentee grandchildren who inherited pieces of Florida acreage.

The initiative, entitled "Your Forest. Managed." tries to help owners understand the financial aspects of everything from using your land to raise wild game, to the ecological benefits of controlled burning.

Florida timberland, even that which is privately owned, is nonetheless critical to purifying our state's water supply, reducing air pollution, supplying habitat for a diverse range of plant life and sheltering some 100 species of animals, threatened, endangered or plentiful enough to hunt.

You might remember that Last month, a federal judge reinstated protection of over 174,000 acres of forest in North Carolina's Pisgah, Nantahala, and Croatan national forests.