Kern Ridlington, Forestry News & Views

A recent survey of private forest owners in Minnesota reveal some interesting facts.
Almost 77 percent of the estimated 140,000 forestland owners have never heard of the Sustainable Forest Incentive Act and only about 15 percent of forestland owners would be interested in the SFIA program that would reduce taxes on their land.
When the SFIA program was first introduced in 2002, it was expected that at least 3,000 forest owners would take advantage of the incentive program.
Unfortunately in the past five years only 658 individuals and 75 businesses have enrolled 601,000 acres in the program.
 Families and individuals own about five million acres or 40 percent of the forestland in Minnesota and still provide about 30 percent of the forest resources needed by the forest products industry. So apparently some forest owners are still interested in timber harvesting even if they do not have a forest management plan.
The highest priority for owning forestland is for hunting, recreation and esthetics. Most forest owners just see the SFIA as too complicated and restrictive giving the state control of their land and its use for eight years.
Most owners feel that the tax rate on forestland is presently not too high and tax relief by the SFIA program is not needed. While many forest owners have forest management plans prepared by the Department of Natural Resources they are only used as an unenforceable guide to improve their forest holdings for wildlife or hunting.
The value of woodland is sky rocking and if and when property taxes for forestland dramatically rises, forest owners will be compelled to enroll in the SFIA program.
The survey results were reported by Bruce ZumBahlen in an article of the Minnesota Forestry Association. The $50,000 survey was funded by the Blandin Foundation after the 2006 Minnesota Legislature failed to appropriate the money. The survey conducted by Dr. Mike Kilgore of the University of Minnesota Forest Resources Department was sent to 1,000 woodland owners not enrolled in the SFIA.

Wisconsin’s Forest Tax Relief program a success
Despite a 25 year restriction on development of private forestland, 37,000 owners in Wisconsin enrolled in the States Managed Forest Law and nearly two million acres of forestland is receiving tax relief. The two million acres of forestland also became eligible for forest certification under the American Tree Farm System Group Certification Program.

Illinois woodland owners face higher taxes
To qualify for a lower farm land tax rate, in 2005 the Illinois Department of Revenue recommended that all forestland be managed under a timber-management plan by the Illinois Forestry Development Act.
Without the farm land tax rate some woodland owners have seen their tax rates increase from $4 an acre up to $80 an acre. Now everybody wants to get into the IFDA program.
In Illinois there is about 4.5 million acres of forest land covering about 12 percent of the state, with 3.6 million acres owned by 170,000 owners who own forestland for deer and turkey hunting. The average ownership is 21 acres.
In Minnesota, one would see a dramatic increase of applications for the SFIA program if that was the requirement for receiving the present lower agriculture rate given to forestland.

Ridlington , a member of the Society of American Foresters, is a media relations volunteer for the Society of American Foresters. He was an Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Commission forester in Aitkin County for 22 years from 1957 to 1980 and district forester in Park Rapids