AHOSKIE – In an effort to assist the number of area forest landowners without current forest management plans, Roanoke Electric Cooperative’s Sustainable Forestry and Land Retention Project is offering funds of up to $1,000 per landowner to aid in plan development. 

Maintaining a detailed forest management plan is a requirement for landowners applying for financial assistance to implement forestland sustainability best practices. It provides recommendations of forest management, which may include timber harvest schedules, addressing forest health and protecting water quality. State and federal natural resource agencies require these plans as documentation indicating forestry practices are in place to address resource concerns.

The Sustainable Forestry and Land Retention Project, operated through the co-op’s nonprofit subsidiary, The Roanoke Center, offers a range of education, application and financial assistance to forest landowners throughout the co-op’s seven-county service territory. The Forestry Project makes this funding available to local forest landowners through a $45,000 grant from Enviva Holdings, LP. Enviva awarded the funds to the Forestry Project to assist its land retention and healthy forests conservation efforts.

The Forestry project will award landowners financial assistance to cover up to 90 percent of the cost of land management plan development, not to exceed $1,000 per landowner. The funds will be awarded on a first-come-first-served basis until the allotted funds are depleted.

Landowners wishing to apply must meet the following qualification requirements:

Own at least one contiguous, wooded eight-acre property located in Bertie, Chowan, Gates, Halifax, Hertford, or  Perquimans counties;

Be or become a Sustainable Forestry and Land Retention Project participant; and

Use awarded financial assistance funds to pay the North Carolina Forest Service charge of $5 per wooded acre to develop a forest management plan and the $350 enrollment fee for forest certification or re-certification into the NC Tree Farm Program.

For information and application assistance, contact Alton Perry at 252-539-4602 or aperry@roanokeelectric.com.