Policy Priorities

Policy Priorities

As an organization that was founded to advocate policy initiatives that address our member’s economic challenges, ensure their property rights, and promote the vitality of forest landownership, our policy priorities are central to FLA’s purpose.

We work diligently with policymakers at the national level to foster a strong business environment and balanced regulatory climate for the benefit of private forest landowners.

Forest landowners face real management and regulatory challenges in today’s market:

Trade Imbalances

Trade imbalances that disadvantage our members as timber producers.

Timber Supply

Uneven supply of raw timber products that has depressed prices at domestic mills.

Regulatory Policies

Regulatory policies that impose undue economic burdens on forest landowners.

Although specific policy issues facing forest landowners have evolved since our founding, today’s economic challenges still require FLA’s patient attention to our members’ needs and passionate advocacy on their behalf.

Current Policy Priorities

FLA’s Policy Focus Areas

01.

Taxes

FLA believes that federal tax policies based on equality and certainty are required to encourage the nation’s private forest landowners to make sustainedlong-term capital investments in forest management.

02.

Growth in Markets

FLA believes that working to achieve policies that address the concern of forest landowners’ ability to sell timber both in the U.S. and in the global wood supply chain is important.

03.

Fair and Balanced Regulations

FLA believes that human society cannot reap the numerous benefits of forests without secure private property rights.

04.

Private Property Rights

FLA believes that the private property rights of forest landowners are vital to ensure that forests can be managed in a sustainable and economically viable way.

facade of usa capitol with columns and staircase
Disaster Reforestation | Legislative | Natural Disasters | Taxes

Bipartisan Tax Package Moves Through Congress

Additional Option for Passage of Disaster Reforestation Act Tax Package Clears Initial Hurdle in the House Last week, Congressman Jason Smith (R-MO), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, announced an agreement on a framework for tax reform legislation. Read more on this…

Advocacy in Action: FLA’s Government Affairs Team Encourages Members to Share Their Stories
Disaster Reforestation | ESA | Legislative | Natural Disasters | News | Taxes

Advocacy in Action: FLA’s Government Affairs Team Encourages Members to Share Their Stories

Advocating for policies that protect private forest landowners’ private property rights, economic viability, and forest legacy is the core of our work at the Forest Landowners Association (FLA). While FLA’s Government Affairs team is working to advance your interests with Congress and the Administration, our team needs landowners like you to tell their stories. When…

Biden Administration Unveils Old Growth Inventory
Environment | Issues | News | Property Rights

Biden Administration Unveils Old Growth Inventory

Last year the Biden administration announced Executive Order 14072: “Strengthening the Nation’s Forests, Communities and Local Economies.”, which tasked the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management with defining and inventorying old growth and mature forests on federal lands. The order cited the importance of old growth’s carbon sequestration and storage for climate mitigation as…

Forest Landowners Association | Legislative Update
Legislative | News | Property Rights | Uncategorized

Forest Landowners Association | Legislative Update

A rule expanding the definition of bodies of waters subject to federal environmental protections remains in place after the House failed to override President Joe Biden’s veto of a measure that would have repealed it. On Tuesday, the House passed a disapproval resolution by a vote of 227-196. While this fell short of the two-thirds…

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Proposes Streamlining Conservation Agreements and Permitting
Environment | ESA | Issues | News | Property Rights | Uncategorized

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Proposes Streamlining Conservation Agreements and Permitting

Update On April 10, FLA submitted comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding this proposal. While we are encouraged by the efforts of the Service to streamline permitting and conservation agreements, we urge the Service to consider additional revisions that would further improve the regulations and help landowners better achieve collaborative species conservation…

Senators Cassidy and Warnock Prioritize Forest Landowners Bill
Disaster Reforestation | Environment | Issues | Natural Disasters | News | Taxes

Senators Cassidy and Warnock Prioritize Forest Landowners Bill

WASHINGTON, DC –The Forest Landowners Association (FLA) commends the introduction of S. 217: The Disaster Reforestation Act, bipartisan legislation designed to allow private forest landowners to recover from the loss of timber destroyed by natural disasters. The bill, sponsored by Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA), would provide the economic certainty that…