CAPITAL IDEAS -- LIVE!
MARCH 2016
News Conference for Forest Owners
Sponsored by the Alabama Forest Owners' Association,
Inc.
This Conference was recorded on March 16, 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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Dr. Jeffrey P. Prestemon
(00:41)
Hear Conference
Comment |
US: Net Exporter of Forest Products
Jeff Prestemon is a
Research Forester and Project Leader
in the
Forest Economics and Policy
Unit of the
USDA
Forest Service Southern Research Station. Auburn University's Daowei
Zhang reported in Trade
Surplus in Forest Products: How Long Will It Last?,
The Forestry Source, 2/16, that he and Prestemon had "begun an
effort to reveal the determinants of the US trade balance in forest
products..." We asked Dr. Prestemon to talk to us about some of the forest
products market factors. He replied with this introduction:
The US Forest Sector emerged in 2009
as a net exporter (value of exports minus the value of imports) in the
total value of forest products. This was a change from recent decades,
when the sector demonstrated a trade deficit in the value of these
products, due primarily on our dependence on wood product imports
(especially lumber) from Canada. Although the wood products sector in
the United States hit a brick wall in the last recession due to the
contraction of the housing sector, the U.S. has faced headwinds as well
from the decline in the use of paper in packaging and media.
For Further Reading:
Phone: (919) 549-4033
Email:
jprestemon@fs.fed.us
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Robert H. Crosby, III
(05:16)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Influencing Lawmakers and Moving Legislation
Robert Crosby, of Crosby
Land Services, is the
Chairman of the
Forest Landowners Association Political
Action Committee
(FLA-PAC). The Forest Landowners Association is an
advocate for private forest landowners in Washington, DC, and cites
notable 2015 successes, such as legislation to abolish the Federal Death
Tax and repeal EPA’s Waters of the US rulemaking, and attempts to protect our
markets by defining wood as a carbon neutral. “In order to continue ensuring
we are part of the solution to some of our nation's issues and not the
problem, we must have a seat at the table … Increased presence on Capitol
Hill, coupled with a Political Action Committee that is well-funded and
'tuned in' to the political process can make a difference.” The FLA-PAC is
taking donations online or via
a printable form for its work to “keep pro-private forests landowner
policy makers in the U.S. Congress.” Crosby will be talking about the work
of the FLA-PAC, which candidates it will be supporting, and how small
contributions make a difference.
Phone: (504) 274-2380
Email:
rcrosby@crosbyresource.com
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Alyne Fitzgerald
(08:46)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Fighting Eminent Domain Abuse on Rural Land
Alyne Fitzgerald lives
in a small town a few miles west of San Antonio, Texas. Someone sent us
a news clipping about the battle she has been fighting to prevent what
she considers a misuse of eminent domain by Alabama-based Vulcan Materials
Company. Southwest Gulf Railroad, a subsidiary of Vulcan, claims it is a
common carrier with the right to condemn private property to create an
access route to haul gravel from its nearby proposed quarry. Alyne and a
hundred or so local landowners who have formed the Medina County Environmental Action Association,
say the railroad is not a common carrier since it will only carry
products from its own quarry. In a
February 9, 2016 Press Release,
she writes:
"If Texans allow this outrage of
confiscation of private property by a private company for their own use
to happen in Medina County Texas, no landowner in the entire state of
Texas is safe from seizure of their property...No one’s land is safe
from confiscation if Vulcan and its paper railroad prevail."
For Further Reading:
Phone: (830) 741-1295
Email:
afitzgerald100@gmail.com
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Mrs. Stephenie Laseter
(13:18)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Experimental Forests: Value to Private Forest Owners
Stephenie Laseter is a
Biological
Scientist and the Experimental Forest Network Lead with the
USDA
Forest Service Southern Research Station. The mission of the
Southern Research Station "is to create the science and technology needed to
sustain and enhance southern forest ecosystems and the benefits they
provide." To support that mission are
nineteen Experimental Forests scattered all across the South, including
the Escambia Experimental Forest near Brewton, Alabama (there are
80 Experimental
Forests in the U.S.). Because she is leading an
Experimental Forest Network Re-Design Project and is especially focused
on these forests in her daily work, we asked Stephenie to give us a little
background information on the creation of the Experimental Forests and
describe some of the research projects that might be of interest to private
forest landowners.
Phone: (828) 524-6441 ext 430
Email: slaseter@fs.fed.us
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M. Kyle Marable
(17:05)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Wildlife Management Opportunities
Kyle Marable is a
Resource Stewardship Biologist with
the
Alabama Wildlife
Federation (AWF). Kyle is one of three wildlife biologists employed
by the Federation to provide technical assistance to private landowners. His
territory covers 30 counties in north Alabama. In a recent issue of Alabama
Wildlife we read:
"Private landowners in Alabama are eligible to receive technical assistance,
both AWF members and those yet to join AWF. We do not have an acreage
requirement nor charge any fee for our services. You do not even have to be
a member of AWF for us to visit your property."
Click here for contact information for wildlife biologists in Central
and South Alabama.
Phone: (334) 301-8542
Email:
kmarable@alabamawildlife.org
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Eddie Stone
(20:17)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Pitfalls of the First Thinning
Eddie Stone is the
President of
Forever Green, Inc., a forestry consulting company focused on
helping private landowners manage their forestland. In a telephone
conversation last month with Eddie, we listened as he lamented the bad
decisions made by many landowners when they thin their planted pine trees.
He described thinning operations that had been conducted by loggers using
the "operator select" method. "Most landowners aren't able to supervise such
operations," and "not all operator select thinning operations can be trusted
to do a good job" (a good job being one that leaves the stand in a
condition to grow quality sawtimber in the future). He told of some
situations where 35 year old stands of planted trees that had been thinned
15 years earlier were in such bad shape that an improvement thinning could
not be carried out. The stands had to be be clearcut because the growing
stock was scattered in unmanageable patches. We asked Eddie to talk to us
today to tell us how to avoid the pitfalls of the first thinning.
"If you own timberland, the decisions you make today will have an impact for
a generation."
For Further Reading:
Phone: (205) 702-4420
Email:
edstone@windstream.net
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Dr. Roger A. Sedjo
(25:20)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Impact of Federal Tax Reform on Forest Landowners
Roger Sedjo is
Senior Fellow and Director, Forest Economics and Policy Program at
Resources for the
Future, "an independent, nonpartisan organization that conducts
rigorous economic research and analysis to help leaders make better
decisions and craft smarter policies about natural resources and the
environment." The Forest
Landowners Tax Council asked AFOA to talk with Dr. Sedjo about tax
reform issues that he and Dr. Brent Sohngen wrote about last year in
The Effects of a Federal Tax Reform on the US Timber Sector.
Tax change proposals that would most
directly affect forest landowners are:
- ending the capital gains treatment of
timber
- restricting the deductibility of current
management costs
- repealing the deductibility of
reforestation costs
Some of the effects of the proposed tax
changes are:
- a reduction in investments in timber
production, with both timber regeneration and management levels
declining substantially
- the revaluation of timber assets
downward even though the physical forest is initially unchanged
- a reduction in the physical timber
stocks over time, reflecting the decrease in investment compared with
what would have occurred if taxes were not changed
- a decline in US comparative advantage in
timber production as foreign production replaces US production causing
an increased trade deficit of by up to $3.6 billion per year
- a reduction in the area of US
timberlands, which would be up to 15 million acres less than it would
have been in the absence of the tax change
Previous AFOA interviews on Tax Reform:
Phone: (202) 328-5065
Email: sedjo@rff.org
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