Starting Time: 00:00
Hayes D. Brown, attorney and forest owner, will moderate this news conference. Hayes’ email address is hbrown@hayesbrown.com.
Starting Time: 00:46
Robert King is a realtor with Southeastern Land Group, and he’s been selling rural land for more than 25 years. As a rural landowner himself, he fully understands the connectivity issue faced by many living in rural areas around the state. After much frustration with a variety of technology, both dial-up and satellite solutions, he found what is providing reliable internet service through Starlink. A division of SpaceX, Starlink is a high-speed, low-latency broadband internet solution specifically designed for rural locations, and it’s being used in countries around the globe. Robert will join us to talk about how it has helped his family and how it can help thousands of others–even with an impact on property value.
Starting Time: 06:33
Gary Faulkner is a Forest Economic Development Specialist for the Alabama Forestry Commission. As practically any landowner will tell you, the Southeast–and Alabama in particular–is an ideal geographical location for forest product capital investments. With so many benefits to companies to do business in Alabama, the forest product sector thankfully is growing in the state. The most recent investment being from Canfor Corporation. Canfor recently announced that the company will be investing $210 million in a new state-of-the-art sawmill complex to be built in south Alabama. The company projects the new sawmill will have an annual production capacity of 250 million board feet on a two-shift basis and employ approximately 130 workers. Gary will join us to talk about the excitement surrounding this recent announcement and what this specific activity–and others–means for the industry in Alabama.
Starting Time: 11:39
Jessica Little is manager of the Ad Valorem Tax Department at Larson & McGowin. She assists clients every day understand and apply for Current Use assessment for property (ad valorem). Current Use assessment for property taxes was put in place by the Alabama legislature in 1982 in order to slow development and to allow landowners to keep their forests and farms in open land rather than being forced to develop them because of tax pressure. While regular tax assessment looks at the highest realistic value of the property, Current Use allows for the property to be assessed based the way it is currently being used. The importance of the difference is that Current Use will typically save landowners money. Yet oftentimes, that fact isn’t shared with landowners at the courthouse. Jessica joins us to talk about how landowners can apply for Current Use, what is required from landowners, and the basics landowners need to know on the topic.
Starting Time: 16:23
John Stivers is the owner of Professional Timberland Services. As a certified burn manager in multiple states, John knows firsthand the many benefits of completing the course and becoming a certified burn manager. As stated by the Alabama Forestry Commission, any forest land owner, forester, wildlife biologist, consultant, contractor, or agency personnel who is interested in using prescribed wildland fire as a management tool must have prescribed burn manager certification. Currently, there are approximately 1,200 certified prescribed burn managers in Alabama, and approximately 177 people have been added to this list through three courses held so far this year. With just a few prescribed burn courses available each year–and only one left on the calendar this year–now’s the time to sign up. John will talk with us about the benefits of the classes and why all landowners should be filling those spots.
