Forest Legacy Program

Protect privately-owned forestlands

Intact forest lands supply timber products, wildlife habitat, soil and watershed protection, aesthetics, recreational opportunities, climate resilience, and economic and social benefits to communities. As these forest areas are fragmented and disappear through continued development, so do the benefits they provide.

While local governments commonly guide development away from the most sensitive areas through traditional land use controls (like zoning and performance standards), sometimes these measures are not sufficient to fully protect the forested component of our natural resource base.

The Forest Legacy Program (FLP) is a USDA Forest Service program in partnership with Louisiana that will help support local efforts to protect environmentally sensitive, privately owned forest lands threatened by conversion to non-forest use through land acquisition and conservation easements. The FLP is an entirely voluntary program designed to encourage the protection of privately owned forest lands with the help of willing landowners. Through the program, conservation easements, which are legally binding agreements, transfer a negotiated set of property rights from one party to another, without removing the property from private ownership. Most FLP conservation easements restrict development and require sustainable forestry practices.