The Northeastern States Research Cooperative (NSRC), a competitive grant program supporting applied forest research, translation, and outreach activities in the Northern Forest, announced today its inclusion of $6 million in funding within the FY26 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill passed by bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate.
This allocation underscores Congress’s support for applied forest research and outreach to benefit the economies and communities of the Northern Forest region, which spans 26 million acres across Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont.
Sustaining Vital Research for the Northern Forest
The NSRC, revitalized in 2020 after a brief funding pause and another gap in FY25, has established itself as a primary source of funding for forest research that addresses the region’s most pressing environmental challenges (e.g., wildfire) and emerging opportunities (e.g., innovative wood products) through sustainable management. The FY26 allocation will enable NSRC to continue its mission: funding research and outreach that balances the priorities and opportunities of the Northern Forest while linking scientific findings directly to practice.
“We are delighted that Congress continues to recognize the vital role the Northern Forest plays in the lives of the two million residents who live, work, and recreate here,” said the NSRC Executive Committee in a joint statement. “This funding ensures we can continue to support high-impact science and outreach with direct relevance for healthy forests, sustainable economies, and rural communities.”
Impact of Funding
Funds will be administered through a collaboration of the USDA Forest Service and five designated institutions: the University of Maine, the University of New Hampshire, the University of Vermont, and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF), in partnership with the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation.
Since its revitalization, NSRC has allocated millions of dollars to projects vetted by external partners, prioritizing solutions-driven, engaged research that aligns with forest and community adaptability and resilience. Key focus areas for this funding include:
- Decision-Support Tools: Develop key interactive software that can work with varied audiences to develop user-friendly, web-based decision-support frameworks that integrate ecological, economic, and social data to integrate research into actionable information for forest operations and management.
- Resilient Forest Management: Developing decision-support tools for more adaptive, resilient, and sustainable forest management to meet multiple objectives (e.g., timber supply, forest growth and yield, recreation).
- State of the Forest: Expanding understanding of our changing forests with an emphasis on forest health, including predictive research on response to threats such as invasive species, wildfire, and extreme weather events.
- Rural Community & Economic Resilience: Developing forest management strategies and innovative forest products that address social, environmental, and economic challenges in rural, forest-based economies.
- Indigenous Forest Knowledge: Investing in applied forest research, synthesis, and translation that advances Tribal priorities and mentorship of Indigenous youth in applied forest research and Traditional Ecological Forest Knowledge.
- Effective Public Engagement: Strategies for sharing science-based forest management practices with professional foresters, nonprofits, landowners, policymakers, and the public.
A Legacy of Collaboration
In the most recent funding cycle (FY24), NSRC awarded $3.3 million to 14 projects, ranging from bioplastics production and climate-smart forestry to the protection of brown ash, a tree species of high cultural significance to Indigenous communities. This new $6 million allocation will enable NSRC to build momentum and support a new wave of research proposals that address the evolving needs of the region’s landowners, policymakers, and other partners.