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CAPITAL IDEAS -- LIVE!
MARCH 2009
News Conference for Forest Owners
Sponsored by the Alabama Forest Owners' Association, Inc.
This Conference was recorded on MARCH 24, 2009.
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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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Dr. David F. Slonaker
(00:27)
Hear Conference |
Do What You Can When You Can
David Slonaker is a human
resource psychologist, a Georgia forest owner, and long-time AFOA member who
lives in Midland, Georgia. In a time when many people are considering how to
reposition their financial assets, Dr. Slonaker has written a book
that is focused on helping us strengthen and reposition our human
assets. If the current financial meltdown has left you with less spendable
cash, this might be a good time to invest time enjoying
friends and improving family ties. In Do What You Can When You Can,
the author uses stories based on real life events to help the reader
understand the theme of each chapter; many are set on the farm and in the
forest. Dr. Slonaker will sign copies of his book at
AFOA's Annual
Meeting at Cheaha State Park on Thursday, April 23. Cost: $20 at the
meeting.
Phone: (706) 569-6105
Email: slonakerfarms@mchsi.com
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Pamela Villarreal
(04:28)
Hear Conference |
Estate Tax: What It Might Be
Pam Villarreal
is the National Center for
Policy Analysis (NCPA) expert on retirement, Social Security,
economic growth and tax issues. In a 2003 paper entitled
Taxing Forests to
Death, Ms. Villarreal pointed out that the "estate tax forces
landowners nationwide to sell 1.4 million acres per year and to harvest more
than 2.6 million acres of timber." Since the federal estate tax is scheduled
to expire for the full 12 months of 2010, it is expected that the Congress
and the Administration will change the tax during 2009. We asked her
what changes we might expect this year and what changes NCPA
recommends.
NCPA
Studies and Publications on the Estate Tax:
NCPA's Taxes & Growth webpage (links to information)
Phone: (972) 308-6482
Email: pam.villarreal@ncpa.org
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Dr. John L. Greene
(08:47)
Hear Conference |
Estate Tax: What It Is
John Greene is a Forest
Economist attached to the
Southern Research
Station and based in New Orleans. He is a co-author of the recently
published
Estate Planning for Forest Landowners: What Will Become of Your Timberland?
(January 2009, 200 pages, General Technical Report SRS 112) In the
book, the authors discuss the need for estate planning and how to go about
it. They cover ways to minimize the federal estate tax burden when your
forest property passes to your heirs and they describe general tools provided in the tax code – like the marital
deduction and gifting – and forestry-specific tools provided in the tax code
– like special use valuation. Finally, they describe other tools and strategies – like trusts, insurance,
and different forms of business organization, like Family Limited
Partnerships and Limited Liability Companies.
John and Dr. Linda Wang will lead a
full-day
Forest Taxation Workshop on April 22 preceding AFOA's Annual Meeting
at Cheaha State Park. "We’ll be talking about things like how to
establish your timber basis, how to make sure you pay the lowest
possible tax on timber income, how to avoid taxes on cost-share
program payments, how to recover reforestation expenses as quickly as
possible, the tax effects of a casualty loss, and how to deal with
the dreaded Form T." The $75 registration fee includes a huge amount of
printed material, lunch at the Cheaha State Park Restaurant, and full
registration for AFOA's Annual Meeting (4/22-24/09).
Click for
registration information.
Links for the Estate Tax Guide and other
information:
Phone: (919) 549-4093
Email: johnlgreene@fs.fed.us
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Richard T. Straight
(11:23)
Hear Conference |
Conservation Buffers -- Design Guidelines
Rich Straight has B.S. and
M.S. degrees in Forest Management and for the last 7 years has been the
Technology Transfer Lead for the USDA
National Agroforestry Center (NAC). The NAC recently published
Conservation Buffers: Design Guidelines for Buffers, Corridors, and
Greenways. The 136 page online guidelines contain
sections on Water Quality, Biodiversity, Soils, Economic Opportunities,
Protection & Safety (firewise buffers), Aesthetics and Visual, and Outdoor
Recreation. We particularly enjoyed reading the last section on Outdoor
Recreation which had lots of good ideas for trail design.
LINKS
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Buffer
Guidelines - New practical field guide for designing buffers - PDF
and online versions
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Buffer$ - This tool can be used to analyze cost benefits of buffers compared
to traditional crops. - online and download version
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Non-Timber
Forest Products - Your place to learn more about the use and
markets for non-timber forest products
Phone: (402) 437-5178x4024
Email: rstraight@fs.fed.us
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James Arthur Hitt
(15:19)
Hear Conference |
Cost-Share Programs Update
Arthur Hitt is the Landowner
Assistance Coordinator for the
Alabama Forestry
Commission. There are numerous cost-share programs (tree
planting, firebreak establishment, wildlife habitat, etc.) provided by several agencies and we
thought it was time to ask Arthur to give us an update on the programs since
his last appearance on Capital Ideas - Live! in
May of 2006.
In 2006 there were "a dozen federally funded forestry programs to help deal
with the aftermath of Hurricanes Ivan, Dennis, and Katrina. The signup
periods for those have past, but some of the practices are still being
implemented. Currently, the common thread in forestry cost-share programs is
funding to help re-establish Threatened and Endangered (T&E) Ecosystems. One
of the most widespread and well known of these is the Longleaf Pine
Ecosystem."
Click
here to contact local offices of the AFC.
Click here for a brief overview of more than a dozen cost-share programs
available in Alabama.
Link added 7/23/11:
http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/econ/data/forestincentives/federal.htm
Phone: (334) 240-9323
Email:
arthur.hitt@forestry.alabama.gov
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Capt. Don C. East
(17:53)
Hear Conference |
Local Forest History
Don East has been a Navy
Captain, a Tree Farmer, an AFOA member, and is now an author of a book that
looks at our forestland from a different perspective. In A Historical
Analysis of the Creek Indian Hillabee Towns And Personal Reflections on the
Landscape and People of Clay County, Alabama, Don discusses the
"vastly differing views of private land ownership" of Indians and whites,
the economy of the Creek Federation, the early "peckerwood" sawmill
operations, and more.
The book can be obtained on the web from:
iUniverse,
Barnes & Noble,
Amazon.com,
and
Books-A-Million. Or, if an autographed copy is desired, write: Don
C. East, 981 County Road 2811, Lineville, Al. 36266. Cost: $27 soft cover
and $35 hardcover (prices include
packaging and mailing).
Phone: (256) 396-2694
Email:
creekstreefarms2@yahoo.com
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Ted DeVos
(22:31)
Hear Conference |
Creating Quality Understory Habitat
Ted DeVos is a Forester,
Wildlife Biologist, and co-owner of
Bach & DeVos Forestry and Wildlife
Services based in Montgomery, Alabama. When we were able to talk to
Ted during a break from prescribed burning on a client's land, we asked him
to tell us what we could be doing on our forestland during the next few
months to improve wildlife habitat. His quick answer was "create quality
understory habitat." Ted's preferred tools are burning, thinning, and
herbicides, but we suspect, based on the links he suggested (below), fire is his
most preferred tool.
SUGGESTED
LINKS:
Phone: (334) 850-4955
Email: tdevos1@charter.net
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Arthia William Rye
(26:15)
Hear Conference |
Timber Market Report
Billy Rye is the owner and manager
of Forest
Management Specialists, Inc., a forestry consulting firm based in
Florence, Alabama, serving forest landowners in the Mid-South region since
1996. When we asked Billy to give this month's Capital Ideas - Live!
market report, he asked if he could talk about something else, but we
persisted (He will be a speaker on
selling carbon
offsets at AFOA's Annual Meeting on April 23). With
housing starts down from 981,000 in February 2008 to 547,000 in February
2009, sawmills are not buying much timber.
Pine and hardwood pulpwood is still sellable, but weakening and the tie log
(for railroad crossties) market is strong. Billy suggested that there may be
ways to improve chances of selling timber such as lengthening timber sale
contract time and he strongly urged timber owners to use the services of
consulting foresters when selling timber.
Phone: (256) 765-0397
Email: formgtspec@aol.com
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