Southern Indiana Business Report
BEDFORD – Nine Indiana counties, including five in the Radius Indiana region, will receive retroactive Secure Rural Schools payments from the U.S. Forest Service for 2024.
Payments to the Indiana counties total $240,813.
Counties receiving funds are Crawford, Lawrence, Martin, Orange, Dubois, Perry, Brown, Jackson and Monroe. They receive these funds because the Hoosier National Forest has land within their counties.
According to a news release from the Forest Service, these payments help sustain public schools, maintain local roads, strengthen wildfire preparedness and support other essential services in rural communities.
The 2024 payments include Title I and Title III allocations, which help fund education, transportation infrastructure and critical community services in rural areas. They also enhance wildfire readiness at the local level by supporting Firewise Communities programs, reimbursing counties for emergency services on national forests, and supporting the development of Community Wildfire Protection Plans — making communities safer and improving coordination with Forest Service wildfire response efforts.
Because SRS had not yet been reauthorized when 2024 payments were issued, the Forest Service initially made payments under the 1908 revenue-sharing framework, as required by law. With reauthorization, the agency is now reconciling payments to ensure counties receive the full amounts owed under the program.
Since 1908, 25% of Forest Service revenue from timber sales, mineral leases, livestock grazing, recreation fees and other sources have been shared with states and counties containing national forests. By the 1990s, long-term reductions in timber revenue significantly reduced these payments, prompting Congress to enact the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 to provide more stable funding for at-risk local services.
Over the past decade, the Forest Service has distributed $2.6 billion through the SRS program.
For more information about the Secure Rural Schools program, visit: https://www.fs.usda.gov/working-with-us/secure-rural-schools