grays harbor county and weyco...this should be interesting

[snarkybull]

http://kxro.wordpress.com/2014/07/07/county-passes-ordinance-that-terminates-current-use-timber-land-program/

[280ackley]

Actually the county will not get more money.  Instead the tax burden would shift or equal out.  So a homeowner like me who currently pays higher taxes to off set the timberland owners lower tax will see my tax rate go down.

I think your dreamun of more then elk.  If the forest tax rate goes up your property tax won't be going down.

Read the tax laws!  The county would have to balance the tax within the budget.  Say they increase 10 million than they have to lower on others to fall inline with the budget.

I'm not a tax attorney and I bet you aren't either.  I'll stick with property taxes not going down due to potential forest tax rate increases.  Maybe they'll prove me wrong.

[280ackley]

So does Rayonier qualify as a small forest landowner?

No not even close, 2 million bf isn't really very much.  As a example one DNR timber sale can have 6-7 million bf in it, thats only in one sale.

[Doc Sauce]

Tag

[280ackley]

http://kxro.wordpress.com/2014/07/07/county-passes-ordinance-that-terminates-current-use-timber-land-program/

Does anybody know a little bit more about the ordinance then what is in the above article regarding the "harvested no more than an average timber volume of two million board feet per year" statement?  What average are they going to use?  Is it a two, three, five year average or is not really a average at all as in a one year harvest?  They reason I ask is that two million bF isn't really very much for a small land owner to harvest in a two or three year average.  As a example a mature stand of timber should average somewhere around 30 mbf per acre.  Soooo, 2,000,000 bf / 30,000 bf per acre = 66.67 acres.  I'm just wondering what they are going to use as the average because this could affect a lot more landowners then intended.

[blackdog]

They would need to also have fee for access program to be considered for removal from the voluntary tax deferrel program.

[blackdog]

http://montesanotoday.com/2014/07/09/guest-editorial-timber-lands-fee-for-access-commissioner-wes-cormier/

[280ackley]

They would need to also have fee for access program to be considered for removal from the voluntary tax deferrel program.

Ok, thanks. 

[headshot5]

They would need to also have fee for access program to be considered for removal from the voluntary tax deferrel program.

Or have it posted no tresspassing/no public access?

[blackdog]

The ordinance does not force them to allow public access to continue in the open space tax program.