A number of nonprofit efforts across Appalachia, ranging from offering carbon credits to private landowners to promoting agroforestry, are receiving millions of dollars in federal funds as a part of a larger effort to preserve private forestland.  A U.S. Department of Agriculture news release on Wednesday said nearly $335 million from the Inflation Reduction Act will go toward managing and cultivating privately-owned forests across the country. Some awardees of competitive grants are expected to work with private landowners in Appalachian states including Kentucky.  USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack in a statement said the outgoing Biden administration was providing resources “to keep working forests working so that future generations of Americans will be able to enjoy all the benefits they provide.” The Lexington-based nonprofit Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, or LiKEN, will use a $2 million grant to connect small acreage landowners with “agroforestry products that support forest resilience” along with continuing “watershed restoration efforts and assess the landscape-scale impacts of forest management.” Agroforestry, per the USDA, is “the intentional integration of trees and shrubs into crop and animal farming systems to create environmental, economic and social benefits.” The Appalachian Carbon Exchange, a nonprofit carbon credit program started by a land trust in Tennessee, is planning to use a little less than $2 million from the USDA to “connect underserved private forest landowners” in Kentucky and West Virginia to carbon credit markets.  Carbon credits are seen as a way for industries emitting heat-trapping greenhouse gasses contributing to climate change to offset those emissions by entering into agreements to preserve landscapes elsewhere that absorb and store carbon dioxide. The preservation of forests is a frequent target for such programs, with the state of Oregon signing an agreement earlier this year to enter an entire state forest into a carbon market.  Other grant recipients that are looking to expand carbon credit programs in Kentucky through the preservation of forests include the American Forest Foundation, City Forest Credits and Ducks Unlimited.  See a full list of grantees here. The post Federal money set to boost programs conserving, cultivating forests in Appalachia appeared first on The Lexington Times.