The New Hampshire Division of Forests and Lands is a government agency of the U.S. state of New Hampshire. The division "protects and promotes the values provided by trees, forests, and natural communities."[2] Brad Simpkins is director of DHR and the State Forester.[1] The agency's main office is located in Concord.
New Hampshire first established a State Forestry Department and hired the first State Forester in 1910.[3] Other elements of the current Division of Forests and Lands date to at least 1917 with the establishment of a "white pine blister rust control program" (white pine blister rust is a tree disease caused by Cronartium ribicola).[4] That control program became the Forest Insect and Disease Program in 1965, and since 1997 has been the Forest Health Section within the division.[4] Since 2017, the division's parent agency has been the New Hampshire Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (DNCR).[5]
Authority for the division comes from Title XIX-A, Forestry;[6] and RSA 217-A, New Hampshire Native Plant Protection.[7]
Function
Per their mission statement, the division provides "responsible management of the State's forested resources; by providing natural resource information and education to the public; and through the protection of these resources for the continuing benefit of the State's citizens, visitors, and forest industry."[2]
The main functions of the division are:
Forest Health Bureau – "Provide and maintain forest and tree pest control programs in coordination with other state and federal agencies"[4]
Forest Management Bureau – "forest management of woodlands under state jurisdiction, cultivation and sale of seedlings for forestry and conservation, and the research, demonstration and promotion of scientific forestry"[8]
Forest Protection Bureau – "responsible for protecting over 4.5million acres (1,800,000ha) of both public and private forestlands from the threat of wildland fire and crimes against the forest resource"[9]
Natural Heritage Bureau – "finds, tracks, and facilitates the protection of New Hampshire's rare plants and exemplary natural communities"[10]
Planning and Community Forestry Bureau – "deliver accurate resource information, expand knowledge, and motivate...action to maximize the contribution of New Hampshire's forests to the enhancement of their quality of life"[11]
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