The Delaware Forest Service plans to work with a wide range of national, regional, state, and local partners from all sectors—government, nonprofit, and private—to secure the resources to meet its pledged goal of 1 million trees by 2030.

National:

Arbor Day Foundation

American Forests

USDA Forest Service

USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS)

Regional:

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation

State:

Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC)

DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife

DNREC Division of Climate, Coastal and Energy

Delaware Open Space Council

Governor’s Council on Forestry

Delaware Community Forestry Council

Local:

Municipalities (57 incorporated communities)

County Governments

Homeowner and Civic Associations

Nonprofits:

Delaware Association of Conservation Districts

Delaware Center for Horticulture

Delaware Center for the Inland Bays

Delaware Cooperative Extension

Delaware Forestry Association

Delaware Nature Society

Delaware Tree Farm Committee

Partnership for the Delaware Estuary

Forest Protection and Restoration
• Work with partners to protect and conserve headwater forests, large contiguous forest blocks, and forested wetlands
• Restore and expand areas for a variety of forest types, including state rare types such as baldcypress, Atlantic white-cedar, ancient sand-ridge oak forests, and Coastal Plain rich woods.
• Use tree plantings (afforestation) to connect critical forested blocks and landscapes to improve their ecological quality and value.
• Support forest protection statutes to protect forest corridors and riparian buffers.
• Protect critical forests through conservation easements using state, county, and nongovernmental funding sources.
• Maintain funding for Delaware’s Forestland Preservation Program.
• Prioritize acquisition of lands containing riparian corridors, at-risk wildlife, and rare habitats.

Conservation of Soil and Water Resources
• Permanently protect headwater and wetland forests.
• Work with partners to restore wetland/floodplain forests in critical forest landscapes.
• Establish forested buffers along impaired waterways and isolated forested wetlands.
• Monitor forest management operations to ensure they do not degrade water quality.
• Support efforts to protect non-tidal freshwater wetlands
• Plant riparian forested buffers along tax ditches.
• Protect forested ground water recharge areas.

Urban and Community Forests
• Increase urban tree canopy by working with communities on projects that highlight the benefits of trees on public health, quality of life, heat island mitigation, and water quality.
• Set tree canopy goals for priority communities.
• Continue community forestry matching grant program.
• Afforest vacant open space managed by civic associations.
• Work partners in each county to provide technical assistance and promote storm water mitigation using tree planting and forest conservation.
• Provide technical urban forestry assistance to municipalities.
• Increase the number of managing communities, especially in urban priority area communities.
• Encourage urban forest management plans with professional tree inventories.
• Assist civic associations with education technical assistance and encourage urban forest management plans.
• Provide education and resources on http://delawaretrees.com

Goals: (Delaware Statewide Forest Strategy and Delaware Forest Action Plan)

To ensure the perpetuation of forests for the long term, governments must include provisions to promote forests and assist forest landowners in their policies, laws, and long-term planning processes. Governments also need to include forest protection and enhancement within their budgeting processes. The DFS, working with our partners, has identified the following strategies concerning the legal, institutional and economic framework for forest conservation.

• Increase landowners’ and governments’ knowledge and appreciation of forests and forest management.
• Assist at least 50 new (or those who previously never worked with forestry professionals) forest landowners in the rural priority area and 5 community leaders and civic associations in urban UTC priority communities annually.
• Explore opportunities to provide forest and tree management information to new landowners, homeowners, and homeowner associations (HOAs).
• Provide educational opportunities for forest landowners via all avenues (print, media, Internet, etc.) and utilize State Forests as forest management demonstration sites.
• Incorporate forests and related issues into state, county, and local land-use planning.
• Provide urban forestry educational programs (land-use planning, tree care, etc.) to community leaders, civic associations, and homeowners.
• Consider legislation requiring certification for tree care professionals operating in Delaware.
• Promote the importance of forest markets and forest industry to state legislators and key decision makers.
• Increase teachers’ and students’ understanding and appreciation of forests and forest management.
• Establish a working group to support new and existing school-based outdoor learning centers and develop best practices for their curriculum and use.
• Incorporate Children in Nature curriculum into schools.
• Maintain active participation in the Delaware Association for Environmental Education (DAEE).
• Incorporate the Project Learning Tree (PLT) curriculum into pre-service programs at Delaware college and university teaching programs.
• Assist with incorporating forestry into the implementation of the new statewide Environmental Literacy Program (ELP).
• Continue maintaining the two State Forest Education Centers and promote them for use in local school curricula.
• Continue providing forestry educational programs to elementary schools (Arbor Day, Smokey Bear, etc.).
• Work with partners and continue providing natural resource learning opportunities outside of the classroom, such as Envirothon, Science Olympiad, and Forestry 4-H programs.
• Participate in the development and implementation of the Delaware Master Naturalist Program as well as curriculum development where applicable.