Why It Matters: Conserving private forests is critical to maintaining habitat for fish and wildlife as well as access for hunters and anglers. Whether it is a large tract of timberland or a small family-owned parcel, private forestland provides places across the country for sportsmen and women to recreate. The conversion of forests to non-forest uses is a threat to our outdoor sporting traditions, and the Forest Conservation Easement Program would provide landowners will more options to voluntarily conserve their land for future generations.
Highlights:
- The biggest threats to privately-owned forests in the United States, which comprise roughly 58% of forest land in the country, are development, conversion, and fragmentation as the population continues to grow. By 2060, the population is projected to increase to approximately 450 million, and 37 million acres of forest could be lost as a result.
- Privately owned forests subject to a conservation easement stay in private ownership, subject to county real estate taxes, and continue to be actively managed for forests products, wildlife habitat, and recreational access.
- The Forest Conservation Easement Program would fill a gap in federal conservation programs for forests by allowing state and local governments, tribal agencies, and land trusts to purchase and hold voluntary conservation agreements from landowners.
On May 17, Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus (CSC) Member Representative Trent Kelly and Representative Maggie Goodlander, along with several cosponsors, introduced the Forest Conservation Easement Program (FCEP) Act of 2025 (H.R. 3476). Supported by the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) and a coalition of other conservation organizations, the FCEP Act of 2025 builds on the FCEP Act of 2023 (S. 2631/H.R. 3424) that had strong bipartisan support in the 118th Congress. CSC Members Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Senator Roger Wicker introduced the Senate version of the FCEP Act of 2025 (S. 1050) in March.
While the House and Senate versions differ slightly, the bills are mostly similar and aim to conserve forests through voluntary conservation agreements. The legislation would expand the Healthy Forests Reserve Program (HFRP), renaming it the Forest Conservation Easement Program in the Farm Bill’s conservation title. Landowners would have two options to conserve their forestland: Forest Land Easements (FLE), which are modeled after the Agricultural Land Easements under the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, and Forest Reserve Easements (FRE), which are modeled after and are the successor to HFRP.
FCEP-FLE would be administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and land trusts and state, local, and tribal agencies would be eligible to purchase and hold conservation easements on working forests. Landowners would be required to create a forest management plan prior to closing on the FLE. FCEP-FRE would be purchased directly from landowners, and NRCS would be easement holders. Landowners would be required to draft a reserve easement plan that lays out the management activities, including silvicultural practices, to restore habitat for at-risk species.
CSF thanks Representatives Goodlander and Kelly, as well as the other cosponsors, for their leadership on this important issue for the sportsmen’s community, forest industry, and other conservation organizations. CSF will continue advocating for the Forest Conservation Easement Program Act to keep forests as forests to support habitat for fish and wildlife and access for hunters and anglers.
