Criteria for projects

Forest Legacy Projects

Forest Legacy Projects refer to the actual property(ies) being considered for a conservation easement. Only lands within a Forest Legacy Area may be considered for acquisition or easement.

Criteria for selecting Forest Legacy Projects

The following criteria will be applied to projects being considered for purchase. The more of the criteria that applies to a tract, the higher it will rank in priority. The Forest Stewardship Committee will evaluate the projects and determine the state's ranking.

All proposed parcels must meet three or more of the following criteria:

• It is part of a large tract or block of environmentally important forestland and could add to the continuity of the forest area.
• Tracts have the ability, or potential, to produce forest products.
• Tracts contribute to maintaining or improving the water quality of the area.
• Tracts provide a variety of natural resource benefits such as fish, wildlife, and recreation opportunities.
• Tracts contain significant attributes such as public access that are at risk of being closed or lost if not protected.
• Tracts that connect existing protected areas.
• Tracts contain rare forest communities.
• Tracts that are at risk of being converted to non-forest uses.
• Landowners are willing to donate all or some of the property or property rights to the program.

All Forest Legacy properties will be required to have a long-range, multiple resource, or forest stewardship, management plan prepared by a DNR or professional forester that is updated throughout the life of the easement. The plan must meet the current Forest Stewardship Program standards for management plans. Easements will require landowners to maintain the health of the forest through utilizing principles of sustainable forestry. Any harvesting that occurs on Forest Legacy Properties must follow an approved cutting plan and will apply water quality BMP's.  The State Forester, or his/ her designee, will be responsible for approving all management plans.

The USFS also has a requirement that Forest Legacy projects have at least 75% of the eligible land be forested, the remaining 25% can be a compatible non-forest use.

Monitoring
The conservation easement is the cornerstone for protecting these Forest Legacy tracts. Forest Stewardship or multi-resource management plans will be required on the easement to guide forest management activities. Monitoring will be conducted by the DNR at a minimum of once a year. The DNR will ensure that the management plan and easement requirements are being met.