Page 8 - Georgia Forestry - Issue 3 - Summer 2023

“With the encroachment of urbanization in some areas and skyrocketing ad valorem taxes, the policies that we’ve put in place over the past few decades have kept farmers and forest owners on
their property and kept them in agriculture and forestry production.”
— Tom McCall, President, Georgia Farm Bureau
“With CUVA, there was a 2,000-acre limitation and the ownership of property had to be strictly tied to family farm enti- ties. We had so many forest landowners and businesses that weren’t getting any relief due to the limitations,” said Royal. “So, we came up with another plan called the Forest Land Protection Act.”
The Forest Land Protection Act (FLPA) allowed forestry property owners to receive the same tax relief as CUVA participants, but with unlimited acreage and no restrictions on ownership other than requiring the business be registered with the State of Georgia. Like CUVA, the legislation passed as a constitutional amendment. Today, FLPA is responsible for over $40 million in ad valorem tax savings and, through both programs, landowners pay roughly $6.50 per acre compared to the standard $22 per acre without them. The program also helps to keep county budgets whole by providing state funding to local governments as a compensation for their tax revenue losses due to the program.
skyrocketing ad valorem taxes, the policies that we’ve put in place over the past few decades have kept farmers and forest owners on their property and kept them in agriculture and forestry production. They have also helped keep timber companies in Georgia. That’s important because we’re not making any more land. We need to preserve what we have and keep it in productive production — whether it be trees, crops or pasture.”
Reducing the Threat of
Land Fragmentation
With continued pressure from urban- ization, the threat of land fragmentation and parcellation on larger tracts of land, a group of forestry landowners, joined by the Georgia Forestry Association (GFA), approached then-Governor Sonny Perdue in 2008 to look for a solution to unify the way timberland is taxed across the state.
THE FUTURE
OF FORESTRY
IS BRIGHT
We’re developing cutting-edge research in remote sensing and GIS, logistics, artificial intelligence, and biometrics. And, our forest business and silviculture programs are second to none.
Training the natural resources leaders of tomorrow isn’t just our passion. It’s our commitment.
WARNELL.UGA.EDU
6 | GEORGIA FORESTRY