Forest Stewardship Program

Approximately 45 percent of all forestland in the U.S., about 354 million acres, is owned by nonindustrial, private forest landowners and are predominantly “family forests.” In North Dakota, approximately 70 percent of forestland is privately owned. These privately owned forests are critical to sustaining our clean water and air, wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities. The Forest Stewardship Program (FSP) provides technical assistance to nonindustrial, private forest landowners to encourage and enable active, long-term forest management.

Benefits to Landowners

• On-site professional forestry technical assistance
•  Inventory of your forest, including forest health, management, and long-term conservation
• Access to financial assistance programs and tax benefits
• Receive a written forest stewardship management plan specialized for your property

Eligibility

The Forest Stewardship Program offers management advice to landowners for maintaining and improving forestlands and windbreaks. The program provides a management plan free of charge. To begin, please click on this link to navigate to our Forest Stewardship webpage. Once there, click on the big red button towards the bottom of the page that says “Request Technical Assistance.” This will take you to a survey where you provide us all of the information needed to start the process of creating a Forest Stewardship Plan for your property with your goals in mind.

Contacts

Matt Olson, Forest Stewardship Manager
NDSU – North Dakota Forest Service
Lisbon Field Office – PO Box 604
6824 Highway 32 South
Lisbon, ND 58054
Office: (701) 683-4323
matthew.p.olson@ndsu.edu

Cody Clemenson, Forest Stewardship Specialist 
Molberg Forestry Center
307 1^st St E, Bottineau, ND, 58318
Office Phone:(701) 228-5490
Cell Phone:(701) 561-8279
Cody.S.Clemenson@ndsu.edu

The US Forest Service is a program partner.