Authorized by Congress in 1990, the purpose of the Forest Legacy Program (FLP) is to identify and protect environmentally important forestland from conversion to non-forest uses, through the use of conservation easements and fee purchase acquisition negotiated with willing landowners.  FLP is a cooperative partnership between the U.S. Forest Service and Oklahoma Forestry Services.

Of Oklahoma’s 8 to 10 million acres of forestland, more than 90 percent is privately owned.  Many of these private forests, valued for so many resources and managed for different objectives, are being converted to urban and suburban developments and infrastructure, and are being subdivided into smaller and smaller parcels. As a result, we are concerned that the state’s forestlands may be unable to maintain the full suite of environmental services that forestlands currently provide the state’s citizens.

Economic pressures on forest owners, such as escalating land values and estate taxes, often lead to fragmentation and the conversion of rural areas into developed areas that extend into cities and towns.  Census Bureau data shows the population of Oklahoma in the year 2000 was 3.45 million people, an increase of 9.7 percent from 1990.  It is estimated that by the year 2025 the population will increase by 17 percent to 4.057 million.  Although forest inventory data will not be available statewide for several years, the conversion of large areas of Oklahoma’s valuable forests to non-forest uses, including some of the state’s most environmentally important forests, will continue as the state’s population grows.  

Forestry Services is presently developing the Assessment of Need required as a part of the Forest Legacy Program through the Forest Resource Assessment process.  This assessment is due for completion in May of 2010.