Sponsors (5)
Official title: Direct the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior to carry out activities to provide for white oak restoration, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 6, 2025 by Addison Mitchell McConnell · Last progress February 6, 2025
The bill mobilizes federal support, partnerships, and research to accelerate white oak restoration and related economic opportunities—benefiting rural landowners and communities—but does so at a risk of added taxpayer cost, diverted resources from other priorities, uneven access for non‑land‑grant actors, and reduced transparency.
Rural communities, private landowners, and public lands will see increased white oak restoration and improved forest habitat as the bill funds and coordinates on‑the‑ground planting and restoration across federal, state, tribal, and private lands.
Private landowners, farmers, and nonprofits gain grants and technical assistance that make it easier and cheaper to plant, regenerate, and manage white oak stands on private and working lands.
Communities near national forests and public lands will get faster hazardous-fuel reduction and forest-restoration work (reducing wildfire risk) by directing agencies to use proven 'good neighbor' and stewardship contracting authorities.
Taxpayers and federal budgets may face increased costs or reallocation of resources because multiple restoration, pilot, research, and grant activities could require new spending or divert existing funds.
Targeting substantial attention and funding to white oak risks diverting limited restoration and research resources away from other species and broader reforestation or ecosystem priorities.
Benefits and research opportunities are skewed toward designated land‑grant institutions and regions, which may exclude other capable universities, nurseries, and local communities from program design and funding.
Based on analysis of 11 sections of legislative text.
Directs federal agencies to run pilots, grants, nursery strategies, and university research partnerships to restore white oak forests and expand seedling supply.
Creates a coordinated federal effort to restore, conserve, and expand white oak forests across Federal, State, Tribal, and private lands. The bill directs USDA and the Interior Department to run restoration pilot projects, form a voluntary multi‑stakeholder coalition, create a nonregulatory restoration and grant program, boost nursery seedling capacity, and fund research and partnerships with land‑grant universities to improve white oak genetics, propagation, and resilience.