Forestry and Agroforestry

The Florida NRCS staff works with private landowners in a voluntary effort to maintain or enhance forest and grazed forest value on private land. NRCS conservation practice standards meet or exceed established Florida forestry best management practices. Florida staff, together with our partners and technical service providers, strives to assist landowners in implementing forestry programs and in establishing NRCS forestry conservation practices that not only meet the client needs, but also ensure sustainability and health of Florida’s forest resources.

Forestry

It is the goal of NRCS to assist with the management of forested areas for forest health, wood and/or fiber, water, recreation, aesthetics, wildlife habitat and plant biodiversity.

Through a working knowledge of local forest land ecology and native plant communities, conservation planners are able to identify forest health concerns and develop specific management guidelines for perpetuating a sustainable forest ecosystem.

Guidelines are based on a forest prescription that addresses the owner’s objectives as well as ecological parameters such as forest types, soil types, past harvest history, natural community types and successional trends. Planners are required to identify and develop specific management guidelines for habitat protection areas, including riparian buffers, critical habitats and those with special needs, as outlined in the Florida Division of Forestry’s Silviculture Best Management Practices (BMPs): http://www.fldof.com/forest_management/bmp/index.html

Practices such as prescribed forestry, tree/shrub preparation, tree/shrub establishment, pest management and prescribed burning are used to obtain optimal forest communities in Florida. For vegetation management, we recommend only high quality and adapted species in the plant material establishment specifications and native trees wherever possible. When planning for wildlife, we recommend using tree species which best meet local wildlife needs and, when practical, leave snags (i.e., dead standing trees) and cavity trees. When planning for forest restoration, composition of species selected for planting or those favored for natural regeneration need to be native to the site and create a successional stage or state that can progress to the desired forest plant community. The density and distribution of species need to be similar to predominant species in reference stand or appropriate technical reference. To restore diverse communities for increased habitat value, at least four indigenous trees and four indigenous shrub species are needed.

NRCS is dedicated to the control of invasive plant species and federally/state listed noxious and nuisance species on planning sites. Please refer to the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council’s website for a list of all Category I invasive plant species: http://www.fleppc.org/list/list.htm. Additional information on management of Florida invasive plants is available at the University of Florida IFAS website: http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/ie6/index.html .

All conservation planning assistance in Florida actively promotes the recovery of listed species through minimization of impacts to federally listed and proposed species, designated and proposed critical habitat and State species of concern.

Agroforestry

The objective of an agroforestry application is the establishment of trees or shrubs in combination with compatible forages or crops on the same acreage. A silvopasture system provides forage for livestock and the production of wood products, as well as enhanced wildlife habitat.

The silvopasture establishment practice may be applied to pastures where trees or shrubs can be added, forests where forages can be added or on land which neither the desired trees nor forages exist in sufficient quantity to meet the land user’s objectives.

Additional Information:

• National NRCS Forestry
• Florida Division of Forestry: http://www.fl-dof.com/
• NRCS Agroforestry: http://www.unl.edu/nac/
• Longleaf Alliance: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/forestry_wildlife/longleafalliance/

Florida Technical Contact

State Biologist, (352) 338-9547

MJ (Mimi) Williams, Plant Materials Specialist, (352) 338-9544

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