CAPITAL IDEAS -- LIVE!
JULY 2016
News Conference for Forest Owners
Sponsored by the Alabama Forest Owners' Association,
Inc.
This Conference was recorded on July 19, 2016.
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Hayes D. Brown
starting time: (00:00)
Comment |
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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Palmer Schoening
(00:20)
Hear Conference
Comment
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Election Year Strategies to Kill Death Tax
Palmer Schoening is
President of
Schoening Strategies LLC and
Chairman of the
Family Business Coalition, based in Washington, DC. In those roles,
Palmer advises associations and family businesses on tax policy and attempts
to protect them from laws such as the Death Tax. Palmer was referred to AFOA
by the
Forest Landowners Tax Council who suggested we ask him the following
questions related to the elimination of the Death Tax:
- How have Clinton and Trump positioned themselves relative to the
elimination of the Death Tax?
- What realistic possibility does such an endeavor have as congressional
candidates may fear offending one side or the other, as election day grows
nearer?
- Considering the implications of these questions, might there be a chance
for success in the lame-duck session, after the election?
Family Business Report, Summer 2016. Scroll down to "Progress
made on death tax repeal" and to "Presidential tax plans" for a comparison
of Donald Trump's Tax Plan vs. Hillary Clinton's tax plan.
Phone: (202) 393-8959
Email:
palmer@schoeningstrategies.com
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Neil A. Ward
(04:10)
Hear Conference
Comment
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EPA Forest Roads Decision Important to Landowners
Neil Ward Vice President, Public Affairs,
Forest Resources
Association, Inc. (FRA), based in Washington, DC. In the
July 7, 2016 FRA Bulletin, Ward wrote:
"EPA Finds Existing Programs Adequate to Regulate Forest Road Stormwater.
In response to a third-party civil suit, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has, for the second time, decided not to designate
stormwater discharges from forest roads for regulation under the Clean
Water Act (CWA). ... EPA determined that ... state-level Logger Training and
Education programs ... are adequate to address stormwater quality
discharges from forest roads."
Avoiding the cost and red tape burden of
applying for a stormwater permit each time a tract is harvested is important
to landowners and timber harvesters alike.
Additional Information:
Phone: (202) 296-3937
Email:
nward@forestresources.org
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Douglas R. Kruse
(08:28)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Fighting for Property Rights from Coast to Coast
Doug Kruse is the Atlantic
Regional Director for the
Pacific Legal
Foundation (PLF), a national nonprofit organization that litigates
on behalf of property rights, free enterprise, and limited government. The
Foundation was founded in 1973 by several senior staff members of
then-Governor Ronald Reagan, to represent the interests of taxpayers and
other Americans in efficient, limited constitutional government. "They have
brought scores of precedent-setting cases to court, including nine
consecutive
victories in the U.S. Supreme Court." We asked Doug to reintroduce* us to
the PLF and its work. He asked us to pass along the following Press Releases
and Blogs to give you background information about cases that might be of
interest to forest landowners.
- PLF won two significant victories for
property rights at the Supreme Court this year:
- PLF’s recent back-to-back property
rights wins at the Supreme Court could have important implications
on the EPA’s egregious "waters of the U.S." rule, which PLF is fighting
hard to defeat:
- Wyoming landowner Andy Johnson turned
to PLF when the EPA tried to force him to remove the
environmentally-friendly stock pond he built on his own property:
Johnson v. EPA
- PLF seeks Supreme Court review on
issue of whether landowners can challenge critical habitat designations
in court:
Is economically disastrous environmental regulation subject to judicial
review?
- PLF will be back before the Supreme
Court in the fall, fighting for property rights in a case involving
the critical issue of “relevant parcel”:
Murr v. State of Wisconsin and St. Croix County
* PLF
attorneys,
James Burling, 10/03, and
Reed Hopper, 6/08, were guests on Capital Ideas - Live! in the
past.
Phone: (591) 691-5000
Email:
dkruse@pacificlegal.org
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William M Harris, Jr.
(12:05)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Is $200 Million Fuel Tax Needed?
Bill Harris is a State
House Lobbyist and the
Director of Political Affairs for the
Alabama Forestry
Association (AFA). We asked him about rural roads and bridges,
current fuel tax distribution, and a proposed fuel tax increase.
In the spring session of the state
legislature a bill was introduced "that would have increased gasoline
and diesel taxes to the average of the bordering states. This would have
increased the tax by six cents/gallon (a $200 million annual increase)
immediately and the legislation also included language that the tax
would automatically adjust once every four years for the next 12 year
period. ... Expectations are that the fuel tax will continue to be
brought up whenever the legislature meets, including the potential
special session later this year."
"AFA supports sufficient funding for rural infrastructure, specifically, the
repair/replacement of the approximate 1,000 bridges that are posted.
However, AFA further believes that adequate funding would exist for this
purpose if existing fuel tax revenues [were] allocated fairly between ALDOT and
the counties. Currently, 99% of the tax on diesel fuel is directed to ALDOT,
while the current tax on gasoline is distributed 55% to ALDOT and 45% to the
counties. AFA supports allocating the existing diesel tax in a similar
fashion to that of the gasoline tax." Source:
From the Weeds, 5/10/16
Phone: (334) 481-2130
Email:
bharris@alaforestry.org
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Lt. Carter Hendrix
(15:54)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Alabama Bans Import of Deer Parts to Prevent Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)
Lt. Hendrix is the
Captive Animal Coordinator and a
Law Enforcement Officer with the
Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division of the
Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
When we read the Conservation Department July 6 Press Release,
Alabama Bans Deer Parts From CWD-Affected Areas, we asked Lt.
Hendrix to describe the disease and tell us why preventing it's entry into
Alabama is important to both hunters and landowners. In Great Days
Outdoors, July 2016, Hendrix and co-worker Chris Cook wrote:
"Chronic wasting disease is a disease
that affects members of the deer family much in the same way mad cow
disease affects cattle. There is no cure. Once it is detected, there is
no getting rid of the disease. ... In 1973, Alabama placed a ban on the
importation of live deer. ... Testing for hunter-harvested animals in
Alabama began in 2001... All animals have tested negative thus far. ...
In 2012, it became illegal to release captive-raised deer into the wild
in Alabama."
While the July 6 press release stated that
the disease "...is not known to be transmissible to humans or domestic
livestock," the fear that it might be transmissible would put a huge
chill on deer hunting and related hunting land leasing if CWD were
detected in Alabama.
Further reading:
Chronic Wasting Disease - What You Should Know
Phone: (334) 242-2467
Email:
carter.hendrix@dcnr.alabama.gov
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Hannah M. Jefferies
(19:07)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Economic Impact of Private Forests
Hannah Jefferies is a
Timber and Fiber Market Analyst with
Forest2Market, Inc.
She recently completed a report commissioned by the National Alliance of
Forest Owners (NAFO) that "provides national, regional and state-specific
data on jobs, payroll, sales, acreage ownership and contribution to gross
domestic product. Data is based on 2013, the most recent and complete year
for which data is available.
The Economic Impact of Privately-Owned Forests in the United States
is an update to NAFO's inaugural report published in 2009 and updated in
2013. A second report commissioned by NAFO and authored by Jefferies is
United States Forest Inventory and Harvest Trends on Privately-Owned
Timberlands.
The reports make "clear that forest
owners are harvesting only a small portion of the trees they grow to
maintain an abundance of trees. Strong markets for wood products—including
energy here and abroad—help keep these forests healthy, productive and able
to provide numerous environmental benefits such as clean air and water, and
habitat for wildlife. Public policy has long recognized this positive
relationship. As a result, forest owners are growing 40 percent more wood
than they are harvesting.” And, "on a national level ... private working
forests support: 2.4 million jobs, $99 billion in payroll, and $281 billion
in sales." Source:
NAFO Press Release, 6/29/16
Select a state to see its economic impact.
Forest2Market blog links:
NAFO's
Dave Tenny spoke to us about previous Economic Impact reports back in
2013
and
2010.
Phone: (980) 233-4036
Email:
hannah.jefferies@forest2market.com
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Zoltan van Heyningen
(23:17)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Softwood Lumber Imports Up 40 Percent Since Last Year. Why?
Zoltan van Heyningen is
the
Executive Director of the
U.S. Lumber
Coalition, based in Washington, DC. We immediately thought of the
Coalition when we read in
F&W Forestry Notes, Summer 2016 (page 1):
"And now take a look at this worrisome statistic—lumber imports, primarily
from Canada, were up 30 percent this May over last May, to 1.4 billion board
feet (increasing from about 28 percent to 40 percent of last year’s U.S.
consumption). No wonder our prices are flat for sawtimber."
And in
Southern Forest Products Association Newsletter, 7/13/16:
"Softwood lumber imports to the U.S. remained high in May, reaching 1.4
billion board feet, up a hefty 39% from the volume imported during May of
2015. Through the first five months of this year, softwood imports remain up
40% when compared with the same period a year ago."
And, finally, again from F&W Forestry
Notes (page 2):
"This next bit of information may be the only one that isn’t confusing—the
negotiations between the U.S. and Canadian governments over fair softwood
lumber trade have stalled (page 3). The old agreement, which limited exports
to the U.S. depending on volume and lumber prices, expired last year. And
right now, given that the Canadians are also losing out in China, it
probably isn’t a good idea for them to enter into a new agreement.
And that isn’t good news for us in the U.S.
The U.S. Lumber Coalition has been leading
the fight against Canada's "unfair softwood lumber trade practices,
including its gross under-pricing of timber" since 1985. "The Coalition asks
Canadian provinces to allow fully open market competition to determine the
price of timber. In the absence of such reforms, the U.S. lumber industry
will continue to assert its rights under the U.S. trade laws to offset the
unfair advantages provided to its Canadian counterparts by government
subsidies and log export restrictions." Source:
Coalition Membership and Purpose
Phone: (703) 597-8651
Email:
zoltan@uslumbercoalition.org
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