Cost-share program available to help prevent Southern Pine Beetle threats

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 7, 2024

Cost-share program available to help prevent Southern Pine Beetle threats

COLLEGE STATION, Texas-Texas A&M Forest Service is offering landowners financial and technical assistance through the Southern Pine Beetle cost-share program. Applications for this program are open now and will close on Jan. 31, 2025, at midnight.

Eligible landowners can receive technical and financial assistance to reduce the threat of future Southern Pine Beetle infestations and outbreaks.

Landowners may receive up to $50 per acre with a 100-acre maximum to assist with their first forest thinning. They may also receive up to $5 per acre to offset the cost of using a professional consulting forester.

"The Southern Pine Beetle Prevention Program aims to reduce the risk that Southern Pine Beetle poses to our Texas forests by assisting landowners with stand thinning," said Allen Smith, Texas A&M Forest Service Forest Health Coordinator. "This not only reduces the potential for Southern Pine Beetle infestations, it also promotes residual tree vigor and growth and overall stand health."

Eligible applicants must own a minimum of 10 contiguous acres of pine species; tree stands must be comprised of at least 70% pine trees; tree stands must start with a minimum of 120 square-feet per acre basal area; tree stands must be thinned to 80 square-feet per acre basal area or less; and thinning of stands must be completed within 14 months.

Landowners may receive no more than $5,000 in total for assistance for thinning and/or consulting.

Applications should be submitted through local Texas A&M Forest Service offices.

Notification of application approval status will be completed by March 1, 2025. Applications will be approved based on ranking metrics.

More information about eligibility and cost share rates can be found here: https://tfsweb.tamu.edu/SouthernPineBeetlePreventionCostShareProgram/

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Texas A&M Forest Service Contacts:
Allen Smith, Forest Health Coordinator, [email protected] , 903-297-5094

Communications Office, [email protected], 979-458-6606

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