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CAPITAL IDEAS -- LIVE!
January 2003 News Conference for Forest Owners
Sponsored by Alabama Forest Owners' Association, Inc.
Conference was recorded Wednesday, January 15, 2003.
SCROLL DOWN FOR CONFERENCE GUEST INFORMATION
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Hayes D. Brown
starting time: (00:00) |
Moderator
Hayes D. Brown, attorney and forest owner, will moderate this
news conference. Hayes' email address is
hbrown@hayesbrown.com.
Click Here to View & Hear Prior News Conferences.
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Mitch Dubensky
(00:35) |
"What Is A Wetland?" asks EPA
Mitch Dubensky is Director of Forest Environment for the
American Forest & Paper Association in Washington D.C. Mitch and
his peers in numerous forest products companies stay on top of proposed
water-related regulations and help the regulators understand forestry
operations so that unneeded regulations are avoided. "The Bush
administration is planning to rewrite the U.S. Clean Water Act based on
a court ruling that called into question how much of the nation's waters
can be protected by the 30-year-old law." Birmingham News
1/10/03.
Mitch suggests that you assist the EPA in
their quest for knowledge by first reading
Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the Clean Water Act Regulatory
Definition of "Waters of the United States,” (pdf file) and then
sending your written comments to Water Docket, Environmental
Protection Agency, Mailcode 4101T, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW,
Washington, DC 20460, Attention Docket ID No.OW-2002-0050.
More on the EPA rules changes:
Phone: (202) 463-2434
Email:
mitch_dubensky@afandpa.org
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Dan Byfield
(05:41) |
LandGuard: Legal Protection From Regulations
Dan Byfield
is president of the American Land Foundation. He has developed a
new service designed to assist landowners who face any of the following
problems:
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A government order restricting water usage on your land
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The discovery of an endangered species on your private property
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Condemnation proceedings by a government agency
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Zoning restrictions that kept you from building on your land
Click here to learn
about LandGuard.
Byfield is also president of
Liberty Matters, a biweekly news service that you will find
useful.
Phone: 1-800-452-6389
Email: dbliberty@aol.com
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Dr. John L. Greene
(08:59) |
Keep
Timber & Land with Estate Plan
John Greene
is a forest economist with the U.S. Forest Service and a leading
national expert in the field of forest taxation. He reports on a study
which asked forest owners who had recently been involved in the transfer
of an estate whether "special use" valuation had been applied to the
land or timber, whether estate tax was due, and if it was, what assets
were used to pay it. The results of the study may not surprise you, but
we hope they will motivate you to sit down with family members to
prevent unnecessary loss of your property. To help you follow this
discussion, we have posted John's program notes for your review.
Click here to read.
Information for further study:
Phone: (919) 549-4093
Email: johnlgreene@fs.fed.us
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Ted DeVos
(13:29) |
Alabama Quail Trail
Ted DeVos is a
forester and wildlife biologist with Regions Trust Department,
based in Montgomery, Alabama. He is a director of the
Alabama Wildlife Federation and a commissioner of the
Alabama Forestry Commission. Ted manages wildlife habitat on numerous
forest properties and has written many articles on quail management. He
describes the new
Alabama Quail Trail (click here) and how forest owners can get
involved.
Quail & Wildlife Habitat:
Phone: (334) 230-6117
Email: wdevos@earthlink.net
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Debbie Wilson
(16:42) |
North Alabama Birding Trail
Debbie Wilson is
director of the Florence/Lauderdale Tourism Office, which
markets and promotes all types of tourism in Lauderdale County, located
in Northwest Alabama. The Tourism Office will be participating in the
North Alabama Birding Trail project. At this time Trail developers have
no plans to include private forest owners in the project, but maybe
you will figure out a way to make the project better through the use
of your land.
General Factoids of
Interest about Americans:
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54.1 million call themselves Birders
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57.8 million are recreational fishermen
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29.7 million are golfers
Alabama Coastal Birding Trail (developed by the Gulf Coast
Convention & Visitors Bureau)
Demographics and Economic
Impact of Birders on Dauphin Island, Alabama:
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10,000 birdwatchers visit Dauphin Island
annually with financial impact of more that $4 million.
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Average Age is 53.7: more that half are ages
46 – 65; less that 3% are under 30.
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22% earned more that $100,000 per year in
family income; 33.1% earned $50,000 to $99,999; 8% earned less that
$25,000.
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86 % attended college and 49% attended
graduate school. Only 6.2% reported no college.
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55.9% are women and 44.1% are men.
Fermata
(click here) is the name of the consultant which developed the Alabama
Coastal Birding Trail.
Phone: (256) 740-4141
Email: dwilson@flo-tour.org
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Dr. Jim Armstrong
(19:20) |
Are Beavers Drowning Your Trees?
Jim Armstrong
is a wildlife biologist at Auburn University specializing in
wildlife damage management. Jim discusses the problems beavers cause for
many forest owners and lists a host of web pages for you to gather
further information (below).
Click here for a list of Beaver
Control Experts.
WEBSITES:
Phone: (334) 844-9233
Email: armstjb@auburn.edu
Web Page:
http://www.auburn.edu/~armstjb/
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Dr. Weihuan Xu
(24:07) |
Timberland Decision Support System
Dr. Weihuan Xu is
the Principal Economist of the Texas Forest Service. He
specializes in forest economic and resource analysis and is the author
of the web-based
Timberland Decision Support System (TDSS) which we linked to in
November, 2002 in the
Financial Analysis
segment. The TDSS is a web-based decision tool for helping forest
landowners make sound timberland investment and management decisions.
Dr. Xu invites you to try it out and contact him with any questions or
comments.
Open the
Timberland Investment Calculator (click here) and try these numbers:
Discount Rate: 5 percent
Rotation Age: 25 years
Annual Net Cash Flow Per Acre: - $10
Year 1 Activity (Establishment) with Cash Flow (cost) of: -
$200
Year 25 Activity (Harvest) with Cash Flow (income) of: +$3000
Press the SUBMIT button at the bottom of the calculator.
We got a Net Present Value of $589.26 and
an Internal Rate of Return of 10.8 percent.
Now start over. We changed
ONLY the Annual Net Cash Flow Per Acre from -$10 to $0 (we leased our
land to hunters for $10 per year) and then pressed the SUBMIT button and
our "new" Net Present Value rose to $730.20 and our Internal Rate of
Return jumped to 11.95 percent.
Dr. Xu has provided us with a
great learning tool and we hope you'll use it often.
Phone: (979) 458-6650
Email: wxu@tfs.tamu.edu
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Carl E. Carlson, Jr.
(28:50) |
Management Reminders & Stumpage Market Report
Eddie Carlson
owns and operates Carlson Land Services, Inc., a consulting
forestry firm based in Montgomery, Alabama. He helps many Alabama
landowners sell their timber and provides them with forest management
services, too. He recommends advance planning for activities such as
tree planting and prescribed burning. And of course, we want to know
his opinion of what the timber markets are like and what he believes
they will be like in the near future.
Market Report Services:
Phone: (334) 270-1291
Email: ectree@aol.com
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Issues and Topics AFOA is
following.
To suggest an issue or a
topic for a future news conference,
please send an email note to AFOA by clicking here. |
- National or Federal Issues
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EPA Proposed Water Quality Trading
- Energy Bill
- CCA Treated Southern Pine Lumber
- TMDLs
- EPA Basin Projects
- CARA
- Forest Certification
- 2002 Farm Bill
- Energy Crisis & Federal Eminent
Domain
- Red Hills Salamander
- Constitutional Revision/Tax Reform
- County Zoning
- Right to Farm & Practice Forestry
- Illegal Dumping
- Delaney Family Current-Use Case
- JeffCo Storm Water Management
Program
- Current Use Tax Assessment Rates
- Local Harvesting Restrictions &
Road Weight Limits
- Bridge Repairs & the Alabama Trust
Fund
- Dog Hunting & Hunter Trespass
- Seasonal Forest and Wildlife
Management Tips
- Southern Pine Beetle: Salvage &
Prevention
- Forest Fertilization
- Intensive Forest Management
- Long Rotation Management & Natural
Regeneration
- Palm Pilots & Forest Records
- Useful Computer Software
- Industry Consolidation & Timber
Markets
- Stumpage & Forest Product Markets
- Forestland For Sale
- Wood Buying Policies During SPB
Epidemic
- Alabama's Pine Straw Wholesale
Market
- Minerals, Gas & Oil Activity
- Recreational Businesses for Forest
Owners
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