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Innovations to Support Family Forest Owners

Landscape Management Plan

Landscape Management Plans (LMP) is a credible, third-party-approved forest management plan written for an entire region instead of an individual parcel of land.

Reducing barriers to landowner engagement

An LMP reduces the most significant barrier to landowner engagement and action—the need for an individual forest management plan. It provides a clear plan for increased certification, conservation impact, and sustainable wood supply.

A traditional individual forest management plan can take a forester days to prepare, or even weeks when plans are needed for large woodlands or multiple tracts. With an LMP, landowners still receive a customized plan of action and guidance from their forester about how to manage their forests independently, but the time and paperwork required to produce this plan are significantly reduced.

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An ecosystem-based approach

An LMP considers the entire forest ecosystem across a region and prioritizes conservation needs such as wildlife habitat, species biodiversity, and clean water supply. It pulls from geospatial databases and the latest research and scientific data from local, state, and federal agencies. This approach offers a cost-effective mechanism for coordinating landscape-scale conservation priorities, by consolidating multiple landowner efforts toward larger conservation goals.

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Growth across the Southeast U.S.

The first LMP was developed in 2018 by AFF in partnership with multiple agencies, academic institutions, conservation organizations, associations, and industry stakeholders. The original version included 16 counties covering the northern third of Florida. Today the Florida LMP includes the entire state. The LMP for Alabama was launched in 2019, and additional LMPs are slated for completion in 2020 in Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia. The Tennessee LMP is set to launch in 2021.

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Third-party recognition

An LMP is easy to find online and is publicly available, so both foresters and landowners are able to access it. Since their inception, LMPs have facilitated landowner engagement in forest conservation, provided technical assistance and resources to help landowners meet short- and long-term goals, helped sustain forests, and protected critical ecological, social, and economic services.

An LMP is a critical component of landscape-scale and risk-based approaches to sustainability verification because it addresses sustainable forest management planning requirements cost-effectively and at scale. It can also increase landowner access to and participation in certification and assistance programs, such as the American Tree Farm System (ATFS the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Stewardship Program (FSP), and Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) cost-share programs

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For more information

Although each state’s LMP has been developed using the same framework, each is unique to its state’s characteristics and geography, and the administration and management vary from state to state.

You may view LMPs in the following states:

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions about the Landscape Management Plan

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Landscape Management Plan Spatial Data - Florida

Landscape Management Plan Spatial Data - Florida

Browse through the publically available Landscape Management Plan Data

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A Forester’s Guide to the LMP

A Forester’s Guide to the LMP

How to Use the Landscape Management Plan: A Forester’s Guide

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The LMP Process

The LMP Process

Learn more about how the Landscape Managment Plan works. 

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