On Dec. 15, 2009, 497 ARRA Arkansas Fire & Ice Landowner Assistance applications were randomly drawn at the White Oak Theater at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Ark to determine ranking for consideration for funding. The Arkansas Forestry Commission has received more than $8 million in requests for the $1.3 million available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) grant issued through the US Forest Service. A spreadsheet listing the order in which applications were drawn is available online at www.arkansasforestry.org/arra.html in either Microsoft Excel or Adobe PDF format.
Before funding is approved, AFC personnel will conduct a site visit to determine the property meets eligibility requirements within the grant criteria. The landowner will then be notified by letter of approval for funding for a written Forest Stewardship/Hazard Mitigation Plan. This plan will determine the appropriate practices and amount of requested funding. Once the Forest Stewardship/Hazard Mitigation Plan is approved by the AFC County Forester, the landowner will receive written notification from AFC Headquarters in Little Rock of funding amounts and practices approved.
Landowners seeking assistance through the Arkansas Fire & Ice Grant must meet the following criteria:
- The property must be located within the following counties: Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Clay, Cleburne, Conway, Craighead, Crawford, Cross, Franklin, Fulton, Greene, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Johnson, Lawrence, Madison, Marion, Mississippi, Newton, Poinsett, Pope, Randolph, Searcy, Sharp, Stone, Van Buren and Washington.
- The landowner must own a minimum of 10 contiguous (sharing a boundary or touching each other physically) forested acres that were damaged as a result of the January 2009 ice storm.
The eligible practices for funding include a Forest Stewardship Plan (FSP) written by a Consulting Forester ($10/acre for new plan, $8/acre for revised plan); Forest Slash Treatment ($230/acre); Firelane Construction ($.45/foot); and Prescribed Burning ($50/acre). The Arkansas Fire & Ice Landowner Assistance Grant does not require a landowner match. To be eligible to write Forest Stewardship Plans for this program, the Consulting Forester must have successfully completed Forest Stewardship Training provided by the Arkansas Forestry Commission. The Arkansas Fire & Ice Landowner Assistance Grant maximum is $25,000 dollars per landowner/joint landowners.
For landowners that signed up for Forest Slash Treatment under EQIP and have NOT started implementing their practice, the Arkansas Fire & Ice Landowner Assistance Grant will cover the landowner’s required match (usually 40 percent of the implementation cost.)
Additional updates, will be posted on www.arkansasforestry.org/arra.htm as well as the Arkansas Forestry Commission’s Facebook fan page and Twitter feed.
For more information about the Arkansas Fire & Ice Landowner Assistance Grant, call the Arkansas Forestry Commission at 1-800-324-2417 or visit your local AFC office. For information about how ARRA funds are being used in Arkansas, visit the Arkansas Office of the Recovery and Reinvestment Act web site at www.recovery.arkansas.gov.
