NDA Expands Forest Service Habitat Work Through Three Stewardship Agreements

The National Deer Association has announced three stewardship agreements with the USDA Forest Service covering habitat and forest-management work on 12 national forests. In its November 11 announcement, NDA put their combined project value at approximately $23 million. The package includes new agreements for Alabama and the Pacific Northwest, plus an expansion of an existing eastern partnership.

For hunters who use national forests, the substance is in the planned work: prescribed-fire support, invasive-plant treatment, thinning, wildlife-opening maintenance and timber-sale preparation. These are multi-year management agreements, not an announcement that the work is finished or that new hunting ground has opened.

In Alabama, NDA's first stewardship agreement covers Tuskegee National Forest. The 10-year arrangement has a stated project value of more than $1 million and includes support for prescribed fire on 5,000 acres, invasive-species treatment on 1,000 acres and more than 500 acres of wildlife-habitat enhancement. Those figures describe different work categories; the announcement does not establish that they are separate, non-overlapping parcels.

The Pacific Northwest agreement runs for eight years and is valued at $5.1 million. Its regional scope covers national forests in Oregon and Washington, with initial work planned on Washington's Colville, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie and Okanogan-Wenatchee national forests. NDA lists timber-sale preparation and administration, biological surveys, thinning, tree planting and road work among the activities. Road work includes maintenance and reconstruction, but also decommissioning—not simply adding vehicle access.

In the East, the modification to an existing 20-year agreement adds work on Minnesota's Chippewa National Forest and Wisconsin's Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. NDA says that brings the regional partnership to eight national forests and approximately $16.8 million in total project value. The expanded program includes reforestation, invasive-species treatment, wildlife-opening maintenance and other forest work alongside commercial timber-sale responsibilities.

The financial figures are project values, not a claim that Congress has just appropriated $23 million in new funding. NDA describes the western and eastern agreements as a model in which initial federal investment supports commercial timber sales, with future sale revenue returned to habitat and restoration needs on the same forests. The announcement establishes the partnerships and their planned scope; it does not provide a completed-treatment assessment or a measured increase in deer numbers.

For a hunter planning a trip, the practical distinction is between habitat investment and permission to hunt. These agreements do not substitute for current hunting regulations, forest access rules or site-specific closures. Check the relevant forest's current notices before heading into an area where timber, road or prescribed-fire work may be underway.

Read the National Deer Association's announcement for the regional work descriptions and agreement details.

Illustrative file photograph: a white-tailed deer at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in Florida, not one of the national-forest project sites. Photo: Steve Hillebrand / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Public domain. Photo source and usage rights.

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