Timber owners harvest industry news at field day

By LYNN MONTGOMERY | East Texas Edition

June 6, 2002 -- Timberland owners gathered to hear topics on private property rights, agency support, and more during the May 24 East Texas Forestry Field Day in Overton.

Timber is key in our economy according to Jay Tate, forestry Extension associate in Overton.

"The forest product industry employs nearly 100,000 with the industry as a whole valued at $22 billion annually," Tate said. "We need to make your mark, raise your voice, stand and be counted and name your choice."

"There are 12 million acres in 43 counties of forestland ownership in East Texas. As the industry grows, so does urban America and urban forest. An urban forest would be a forest inside a city. For example, the Woodlands or Central Park in New York City, are both considered an urban forest," said Darwin Foster, forestry Extension program leader for Texas A&M-College Station.

With 85 percent of Texans living in urban areas, the nature of urban forests environment plays an important role in people's perception of resource management issues, he continued.

"Urban forest is likely to become the most influential forest of the 21st century," Foster stated.

Due to the increase in urban forest, Extension, along with the Texas Forest Service, are promoting consumer education.

"We need to spend time educating consumers about forest stewardship and forest products," Forest added. "Extension is a catalyst unit between forestry and individuals."

The Texas A&M Forest Science Department stand behind education. Their mission statement reads, "Our Extension programs will educate the urban community and rural citizens of Texas about scientific and ethical forest stewardships and forest products and services through effective, collaborative outreach programs."

For individuals searching for information, the Texas A&M Research Center is a good place to begin: Eric Taylor, forest management specialist, Jay Tate, Extension associate, and Chris Adams, Extension assistant. Also, there is Melanie Kirk, urban/community program specialist in College Station. Currently, the forest products program specialist position is open and that individual would be based in Lufkin. (The research center's telephone number is 903-834-6191.)

The Extension office also collaborates with several forestry agencies: the Texas Forestry Association, Stephen F. Austin State University, Texas A&M-College Station, the Society of American Foresters, and the Texas Forest Landowners Council just to name a few.

The audience at the field day also heard about three major components passed during the last legislation. The forestry bill passed provides important property tax incentives for the reforestation of timberland, provides sales tax incentives on the purchase of equipment, seedlings, and chemicals used in the production of timber, and provides reduced special appraisal (restricted-use areas) for qualified forest zones to encourage reforestation and preservation of non-timber forest values.

The reforestation provision was effective Sept. 1, 1999. It reduces appraised timber productivity value by 50 percent for the first 10 years following a harvest. It requires the land to be regenerated for timber production with intent to produce income. The land must have been under timber-use appraisal at the time of harvest. The provision includes both planted and natural regeneration and the land qualifies when the landowner makes substantial efforts to begin the reforestation process such as site prep, purchase of seedlings, etc.

Also passed in the 75th Session was the provision that landowners can still plant open space lands to trees and maintain the current agriculture valuation for the first 15 years from planting. The land must have been in agriculture valuation for the previous five years and this is a one-time provision set to encourage landowners to plant open space lands.

The sales tax provision recognizes forestry as agriculture in the tax law, according to information shared at the field day. It provides for a sales tax exemption on chemicals used in forest management to include seedlings, herbicides, and fertilizers. It also provides for an exemption on the purchase of machinery and equipment used to produce and process timber. The sales tax exemption will be phased in over eight years as follows: Oct. 1, 2001 - 33 percent, Jan. 1, 2004 - 50 percent, Jan. 1, 2006 - 75 percent, and Jan. 1, 2008 - 100 percent.

Acres where timber harvesting is restricted for aesthetic, conservation purposes, or for wildlife habitat protection will receive a 50 percent reduction in the timber productivity tax on those acres. They include aesthetic management zone, critical wildlife habitat zone and streamside management zone.

Timberland owners also had the opportunity to watch Mike Bird, with Silva-Tech/South, Inc. demonstrate mulching techniques using a STS mulcher. They also visited with Clay Alverson of Timberland Pinestraw. Alverson's business is to harvest pinestraw into bundles. Bundles are marketed to lawn and garden centers, golf courses, etc. (A story on Timberland Pinestraw will appear in an upcoming issue of Country World.)

With everything happening in the timber industry Nolan Alders, a tree farmer said, "If you don't stand up to be counted (in the industry), you might as well line up to be numbered."