Cost-Share Resources
Managing forests and restoring longleaf pine habitat requires a long-term investment, but a variety of financial and technical assistance programs are available to help landowners achieve their management goals. The Sewee Longleaf Conservation Cooperative has compiled this guide to connect landowners with cost-share opportunities, conservation incentives, and professional assistance from federal, state, and nonprofit partners. These programs can help offset the costs of practices such as tree planting, prescribed burning, timber stand improvement, wildlife habitat restoration, invasive species control, and other stewardship activities. Whether you are interested in improving forest health, enhancing wildlife habitat, reducing wildfire risk, or restoring longleaf pine ecosystems, this resource provides an overview of available funding opportunities and assistance programs available throughout the region. Where applicable, we have linked each organization or agency's program page to each programs name. For a PDF version of this webpage, download here.
South Carolina Forestry Commission Programs
There are three main cost-share programs offered by the SC Forestry Commission. These programs all require a landowner to have at least 10 acres of forested land. The Forest Renewal and Southern Pine Beetle Program are administered by county-level foresters, while the Wildland Urban Interface Program is administered by regional-level staff. We've listed the appropriate county- or region-level contacts for all programs.
Pays for:
Establishing and managing non-industrial private forests. Site prep and tree planting on previous agricultural or forested land. Timber stand improvement.
Requirements:
Landowner cannot have the same acres of land under another program in given FY. Area must be between 10 -100 acres. Minimum 300 stems/acre must be present after first growing season. Practice must be maintained for 10 years or until commercial harvest. Otherwise landowner must repay all cost-share received.
Deadline to apply: Early to mid May. Funds become available July 1
Charleston + Berkeley Counties: Austin Phillips, APhillips@scfc.gov
Georgetown County: Tonya Smith, tlsmith@scfc.gov
Williamsburg County: Sean Whalen,
Program Contacts
Pays for:
Mitigation from future loss from SPB through pre-commercial thinning (PCT) and planting. Planting practices allows loblolly to be planted at 484 tpa, or 9x10 spacing, longleaf at 545 tpa, or 8x10 spacing.
Requirements:
Minimum 300 stems/acre must be present after first growing season. Open land planting and hardwood stand conversion not allowed.
Deadline to apply: Early to mid May. Funds become available July 1
Charleston + Berkeley Counties: Austin Phillips, APhillips@scfc.gov
Georgetown County: Tonya Smith, tlsmith@scfc.gov
Williamsburg County: Sean Whalen,
Program Contacts
Pays for:
Prescribed fire, mechanical fuel management, fire break installation.
Requirements:
Tract must be located near at-risk community that has completed a Wildfire Risk Assessment with a rating of moderate or higher and is comprised of at least 10 houses within sight of one another. Treated area must be within 1.5 miles of the assessed at-risk community.
Deadline to apply: None.
Program Contact
Wade Truesdale, WTruesdale@scfc.gov
Natural Resource Conservation Service Programs
NRCS is an agency under the US Department of Agriculture. Applications for the below programs are received on a continuous basis with deadline periods October to November for the next year’s potential contracts. NRCS administers both programs at the county level. We've added the county-level contacts below.
Available to all producers to promote practices that help conserve and enhance soil, water, air, and related natural resources on their land.
Contract period is typically 5 years. Must be managed according to a written forest management plan/stewardship plan with one or more improvements being made to the forest in last 10 years
Covers prescribed burning, site preparation & tree planting, pre-commercial & commercial thinning, road stabilization and wildlife management practices.
Typical contract period is 2 years. Payments are made after activities are completed.
NRCS Program Contacts
Charleston + Berkeley Counties: Ashleigh James, Ashleigh.James@usda.gov
Georgetown County: Rebecca Harper, rebecca.harper@usda.gov
Williamsburg County: Jeremy Munn, jeremy.munn@usda.gov
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Programs
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is federal agency housed under the Department of the Interior. The two available cost-share programs for private landowners focus on habitat restoration and enhancement for imperiled plant and animals. While there are no deadlines for applications, project approval is dependent on funding availability. Both programs are administered by a region-wide coordinator, her contact information is listed below.
Pays for:
Upland, wetland, or riparian habitat restoration or enhancement project activities that benefit imperiled plants and animals on private, tribal, or local government owned lands.
Requirements:
Landowners must commit to maintain the habitat for 10 years.
South Carolina Longleaf Pine Habitat Improvement Initiative
Pays for:
Activities include, but are not limited to: mechanical and chemical invasive species and mid-story competition control, prescribed burning, fireline establishment and maintenance, native ground cover establishment, longleaf pine planting.
Requirements:
Landowners must commit to maintain the habitat for 10 years.
USWFS Program Contact
Sudie Thomas, Sudie_thomas@fws.gov
Sewee Longleaf Conservation Program
Sewee Longleaf Conservation Cooperative provides a cost-share program to help plant and manage longleaf pine forests. This program is available to all landowners in the SLCC area, and encourages practices such as prescribed fire and planting of new longleaf pine stands. Projects are evaluated on a rolling basis and awarded as grant-funding allows. This funding is administered through The Longleaf Alliance, and made possible by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Longleaf Landscapes Stewardship Fund.
The Longleaf Alliance's Planting fund offers up to $0.21 per seedling planted. Additional SLCC partner funding may be available to help offset the cost of site prep and labor.
We can offer $20/acre, for prescribed fire in longleaf stands.
This program offers $75/acre for mid-story hardwood vegetation control for enhancing and improving understory habitat and wildlife value in existing longleaf stands.