100 Acres of Forest Stand Improvement

The South Dakota Department of Agriculture’s Division of Resource Conservation and Forestry celebrated the NASF #CentennialChallenge by surpassing their goal of completing 100 acres of non-commercial forest stand improvement in the state with 179 acres of non-commercial thinnings!

The non-commercial thinning was completed with the help of cost-share to private landowners provided by the South Dakota Conservation Commission grant program through the local Conservation Districts and the Natural Resource Conservation Service’s (NRCS) Environmental Quality Incentive Program and Conservation Stewardship Program. The SD Division of Resource Conservation and Forestry provides the technical assistance for forestry related projects for the South Dakota Conservation Commission grant program and has an agreement with the NRCS to provide the technical assistance for their two programs.

These non-commercial thinning projects of Ponderosa pine stands were completed within the Black Hills of SD. These projects were done to increase the health and vigor of the forested private acres.