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: 00:55
Greg Smith is a recently retired physician living in metro Atlanta, Georgia. He’s also an owner of forestland in north Alabama, and he recently experienced what every landowner fears: an attempted land sale fraud. According to the FBI, an increasing number of property owners are having their land sold right from under them. In fact, recent FBI data reveals that real estate scams have increased at an alarming rate of 64% from 2020 to 2021 alone. Luckily for Greg, it was brought to his attention by the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation in time to thwart the scam. Greg joins us to share his experience in hopes of raising the alarm on this frightening new trend.
Starting Time: 08:31
Rusty Rumley is a Senior Staff Attorney at National Agricultural Law Center, the nation’s leading source of agricultural and food law research and information. What is pore space? It is “the portion of the [ground’s] volume that is not occupied by or isolated by solid material.” Pore space is usually created by an extraction of minerals, like oil or natural gas. Who owns the rights to pore space? The landowner? The mineral rights owner? It’s a topic raising a lot of questions (eminent domain, deadly gas concentrations), and thus far, there aren’t a whole lot of answers, at least in the state of Alabama. Rusty joins us to talk about pore space and why landowners need to have it on their radar.
Starting Time: 12:23
Cathryn (Katie) Greenberg is a Research Ecologist with the USDA Forest Service. While every forest landowner has different needs and wants for their forestland, one rather consistent appreciation for their land is spotting wildlife on it, particularly birds. There are many misconceptions about how landowners can maintain bird diversity on their land, however. Katie Greenberg has performed extensive research into the topic, and she joins us to share how different disturbances, such as wildfire, prescribed burn, and timber harvests, affect bird diversity.
Starting Time: 18:16
Andrew Bosserman is a Certified Public Accountant and owner of Bosserman CPA, PLLC. When it comes to federal income taxes, timberland isn’t always top of mind for most forest landowners. Numerous actions landowners take with their timberland have tax implications, thus, landowners must be proactive rather than reactive in order to get the best tax outcome possible. Andrew joins us to lend his expertise on the topic and share ways landowners can save on taxes.
