N.C. Forest Service - Foresters for Healthy Waters Program: Preharvest Plan Cost Share

What: A time-limited cost share program to support the preparation of detailed preharvest plans that go ‘above & beyond’ existing baseline requirements for protecting water quality.

Goal: Ensure rivers and streams on forestlands remain in good condition to support habitat needs for multiple rare aquatic species.

Where: This project is available in the following counties: Edgecombe, Franklin, Granville, Halifax, Nash, Vance and Warren (see map below).

Benefits: Landowners who voluntarily participate will receive reimbursement for the cost of having a qualifying preharvest plan prepared for their pending timber harvest.

Eligible Landowners: Non-industrial private forestland owners.

Minimum Area Size: 10 acres (contiguous). 

Cost Share Availability Start Date: July 1, 2021.

Preharvest plans are the only plans available for this cost share assistance, and they must be prepared by forestry or wildlife management practitioners who have completed training through the Foresters for Healthy Waters Program (see list in “Related Resources”).

Tract eligibility requirements are listed below. All three items must be met: 

1. Area of harvest must be 10 acres or more (must be contiguous; can include the stream buffer). 
2. Timber harvest is expected in the next one to three years (commercial thinning is eligible; precommercial thinning is not). 
3. The harvested area will continue as a forest (this may include natural or artificial regeneration).

Program participants will need to coordinate with the following NCFS districts for funding, plan submission and review, and invoice submission for reimbursement payment:

• NCFS District 5 – Rocky Mount Office (252-442-1626). Eligible counties include Edgecombe, Franklin, Halifax, Nash and Warren. 
• NCFS District 11 – Hillsborough Office (919-732-8105). Eligible counties include Granville and Vance.

Applications will be accepted at the NCFS offices starting July 1, 2021. Funding allocations will be made on a “first-come, first-served” basis, based upon the date of receipt of the application at the NCFS headquarters in Raleigh, NC.

The preharvest plan must include all of the applicable required elements described in the program handbook and outlined in the plan checklist. 

Plan writers are advised to watch the recorded 5-hour webinar that introduces and describes this program. The webinar is available on-demand for no fee from the ForestryWebinars.net website: http://forestrywebinars.net/webinars/foresters-for-healthy-waters/?sr=wp~ondemand.