The White Oak Resilience Act

The White Oak Resilience Act would direct the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of the Interior (DOI) to undertake a comprehensive set of white oak restoration activities across federal, state, tribal, and private lands. The bill creates a voluntary White Oak Restoration Initiative Coalition to coordinate restoration, policy recommendations, and outreach, and it establishes multiple pilot projects, grant programs, and research collaborations designed to improve white oak health, regeneration, and habitat value in light of climate change. Several parts of the bill create time-limited authorities (sunsets at seven years) and rely on private funding and partnerships (notably a grant program administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation) to support activities. A core feature is to align science, coordination, and non-regulatory actions across federal agencies and non-federal partners to increase the pace and scale of white oak restoration without expanding federal full-time staff. In short, the bill aims to build a broad, collaborative framework that combines pilot projects, nonprofit and tribal partnerships, nurseries, and research to restore and strengthen white oak ecosystems and their wildlife habitat, while pursuing non-regulatory, voluntary strategies and capacity-building efforts over a seven-year horizon.