FRA: Tree Planting Costs to Spike if Foreign Worker Provisions Expire

Tree planting costs could increase by more than $260 million if provisions enacted in 2015 by Congress to the H-2B visa program are allowed to expire next year, according to the Forest Resources Association.

The H-2B visa program provides for the temporary entry of seasonal foreign labor to work jobs that domestic workers are unwilling to fill, including the planting of hardwood and softwood tree seedlings after a timber harvest.

The program was retooled in 2015 with new regulations that the FRA said made employing foreign workers more challenging and, subsequently, reforestation unaffordable. However, an appropriations bill passed at the end of 2015 included “major improvements” to the new rules, including allowing exemptions from the 66,000-worker annual cap and the use of private wage surveys to determine wages for H-2B workers.

The appropriations bill was for the 2015–2016 fiscal year, so the FRA is currently working to extend the provisions into the 2017 appropriations process. It is asking interested forest products professionals to contact their Congressional leaders and ask for the H-2B visa program terms to be renewed.

A model letter is available online.