The purpose of these awards is to provide assistance to private landowners and state agencies for recovery of forested lands impacted by hurricanes and other natural disasters in 2022-2024

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, Southern Region awarded $13.3M to the South Carolina Forestry Commission under the Cooperative Forestry Assistance program (CFDA 10.664) on July 3, 2025, to support forest recovery and wildfire mitigation across South Carolina through July 2, 2030. The project delivers comprehensive technical assistance and restoration services to private forest landowners and state agencies impacted by hurricanes and natural disasters occurring between 2022 and 2024. Key deliverables include conducting 300 timber damage appraisals covering 24,000 impacted areas, developing forest management plans, and providing field-based restoration guidance to rural landowners on replanting and forest recovery strategies.

The award also supports community forest restoration through inventory assessment, damaged tree removal, pruning operations, and replanting of 750 mature trees. To maintain forest health, the Commission will survey 136,000 acres for invasive forest pests with treatment of 200 acres identified as requiring intervention. Additionally, the grant funds South Carolina's wildfire hazard mitigation activities, including installation of firelines across continuous forest fuels, prescribed burning and mechanical fuel treatments, prevention awareness campaigns in impacted counties, and procurement of suppression equipment for rural fire departments to enhance wildfire response capabilities.

This grant will focus on forestry related technical assistance to landowners in rural areas, recovery of forest health, wildfire hazardous fuels reduction, wildfire prevention and response, and recovery of damaged and destroyed community forests. Private forest landowners will receive technical assistance on replanting and restoring their forests through timber damage appraisals, field visits, and management plans. 300 damage appraisals covering 24,000 impacted areas will be conducted. Community forests will be inventoried and restored with damaged tree removal, pruning, and replanting of 750 mature trees. To maintain and improve forest health 136,000 acres will be surveyed for invasive forests pests and 200 acres treated. South carolina will install firelines to break up continuous forest fuels and mitigate wildfire risk as well as reduce fuels through prescribed burning and mechanical treatments. Wildfire prevention campaigns will occur throughout impacted counties. Rural fire departments will be supplied with suppression gear to help them provide more efficient and robust response in the event of a wildfire.