A Forest Management Partnership Guide for Florida Landowners

Resources

For Educators

Taking care of business

Forests cover more than 14.5 million acres in Florida, almost half the state. Keeping our forests healthy and productive isn’t just good for the environment––it’s good for economy. Forest-related industries create 133,000 jobs for Floridians.

Like every other growing thing, forests need care and attention. The Division of Forestry makes sure that state forests stay healthy. It has foresters to help landowners do the same with their trees.

Five for one

Florida is one of the top four tree-planting states in the nation—more than 82 million trees are planted each year. For every tree cut down, five seedlings are planted.

In This Section

Where Florida grows forests disappear.

Florida loses 1200 forested acres per week to accommodate the state’s astonishing population growth. Since 1980, 1.3 million acres of forest have been lost to urban sprawl and other non-forest uses. Florida loses more forest acres per year than are protected by land conservation programs. During the 2004 hurricanes, 10 million forest acres in Florida were hit, and 2 million were severely damaged.