Are your woodlands challenged by invasive species? Has your forest been impacted by significant forest health insects or diseases? Are you looking to expand your forest in open areas of your property to manage for future forest benefits, including wood products, wildlife, or biodiversity? The Regenerate NY program is here for you!
Donor Name: New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
State: New York
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 08/31/2026
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
The purpose of the Regenerate NY grant program is to provide financial assistance to private landowners and not-for-profits in establishing new and/or restoring existing forest woodlands. Approximately $5,080,000 is available for Regenerate NY – Round 5. Funding for this grant opportunity is provided by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service through the Inflation Reduction Act’s Forest Landowner Support Initiative Landowner Cost Share Payment Program and the Environmental Protection Fund for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation.
They filter out air and water pollutants, provide food and shelter for wildlife, support local economies,and mitigate the impacts of climate change. To ensure these services are maintained, it is essential that the forests continually regenerate or regrow so there are younger trees to take the place of older ones as they die. But there are significant challenges to forest regeneration in New York State (NYS), including:
- An overpopulation of deer that can devastate forest understories by eating tree seedlings;
- Competing vegetation, especially invasive plants, that outcompete native tree seedlings for light, water, and nutrients, limiting new growth; and
- Increasingly extreme weather—hotter and drier growing seasons, more severe rain and wind storms, heavier snow storms—that damages or weakens trees, making them more susceptible to insect and disease attacks.
Funding Information
There are two opportunities available for applicants:
- Small budget projects – awards range from a minimum of $10,000 up to $49,999.
- Large budget projects – awards range from $50,000 up to a maximum of $1 million.
Eligible Projects
Projects must treat five acres or more, be able to be completed within three years, and must include at least one of the following forestry practices.
- Afforestation/reforestation – Conduct activities that encourage the establishment or regeneration of trees to create or maintain a forested landscape. This may include site preparation, tree planting, or installing tree protection. Planting projects must use native trees or non-native species that are not invasive. For more information on tree planting and maintenance, visit the page on how to plant a tree or the Cornell Guide for Planting and Maintaining Trees and Shrubs.
- Regeneration Silviculture/Early Successional Habitat – Apply stewardship practices or treatments that boost regeneration of forest stands that are currently in a degraded or unhealthy state. Approved treatments may include seed trees, shelterwood, and other canopy gap harvests that would promote natural regeneration by allowing substantially more sunlight to reach the forest floor.
- Forest Health Resiliency Thinning – Thinning the forest overstory to boost resiliency in stands that are susceptible to, or currently experiencing, an outbreak of insect pests or disease. This management practice targets forest stands that are overcrowded (growing too densely)—which results in increased competition for resources, leading to weaker trees that are more vulnerable to insect and disease attacks and trees that are of low ecological or economic value. Management methods may include single tree selection or other overstory harvest practices.
- A maximum of $1 million will be available for this practice in this grant round. When the funds have been exhausted, applicants will be notified and allowed to modify their application.
- Competing Vegetation Control – Employ mechanical removal or chemical control to address aggressive native or invasive plant species that interfere with forest establishment or regeneration. DEC has a list of certified applicators and technicians that can be consulted with for this project type.
- Deer Exclosures – Install fencing, slash walls, or other barriers around an area or individual seedlings to protect young trees from deer browse and allow natural regeneration to occur. For more information on slash walls, visit The Cornell Slash Wall Resource Center
Eligibility Criteria
- Non-industrial private landowners—any Individuals, trusts, corporate entities, or other for-profit entitie —who own less than 2,500 acres of land;
- Not-for-profit organizations, and state or federally recognized Indian Nations or Tribes (no limit on amount of acreage owned); and
- Companies or organizations acting on behalf of non-industrial private landowners (listed above). Examples include:
- Quasi-government agencies, such as Soil and Water Conservation Districts
Private forestry businesses - Natural resource businesses focused on tree planting
- 501(c)(3) not-for-profits.
- Quasi-government agencies, such as Soil and Water Conservation Districts
For more information, visit DEC.
