Page 24 - Georgia Forestry - Summer 2018

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COURTESY OF FOREST LANDOWNERS ASSOCIATION
Mac Peden’s family land is located in Hancock County. His family has farmed the land since it was originally acquired through a land grant in 1784.
“Unlike most other crops and other business types, forestland may not produce significant income for several years until timber is mature enough to be cut — even longer if markets for timber are weak,” he said. “But the property tax bill comes every year regardless.”
McWilliams continued: “Changes in forestland tax policy in the past 30 years have gone a long way toward creating fairness for landowners and encouraging them to keep their land in trees.”
And that’s a good thing. Georgia’s 22 million acres of commercially available timberland are largely owned by private, non-industrial landowners like Peden. They use their own resources to manage the land for clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat and several ecosystem services that benefit every Georgian. Not to mention, they employ more than 140,000 Georgians and contribute over $35 billion to the economy.
“Investments in forestry, no matter the size or the objective of the land, have a big downstream impact on Georgia’s environment and economy,” Peden said. “Private forests make Georgia a better place to live, work and play. So we should be doing everything we can to make our forests competitive and profitable for the average private landowner.”
A Competitive
Disadvantage
Both CUVA and FLPA have been monu- mental for the 450,000 forest landowners like Peden across the state; however, even with those two programs, Georgia land- owners are at a competitive disadvantage when the average property tax rate is
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22 | GEORGIA FORESTRY