More than 225 attend public meeting about proposed changes to Forest Reserve Program

by Kelli Boylen
freelance writer

More than 225 people crowded the Ethel Robinson Meehan Community Center in Harpers Ferry Thursday, October 6 for a public meeting held by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Forestry Bureau to discuss the potential changes to the Forest Reserve Program for Iowa landowners.
According to Paul Tauke, State Forester/Chief of the Iowa DNR Forestry Bureau, two proposed bills impacting the Forest Reserve Program include House File 680, which would eliminate the tax exemption in 2021, and House File 681, which would limit landowners to enrolling only 15 percent of their available acres in the Forest Reserve Program and included provisions penalizing landowners who enroll in the program and lease-hunt their enrolled acres.
The Forest Reserve Program was established in 1906 to encourage retention of forest for “erosion control, watershed protection and game cover,” Tauke said. Currently, the requirements of the program are:
• At least two contiguous acres and not less than 66 feet wide
• There must be at least 200 trees per acre
• No cattle, mules, sheep, goats or hogs are permitted on forest reservations
• Not more than one-fifth  of the total number of trees in the forest reservation may be removed in a single year
• If buildings are present, one acre is excluded from tax exemption.
Statewide, less than eight percent of the total number of acres is woodlands. There are about 692,934 acres enrolled in the Forest Reserve Program statewide. In Allamakee County there are 38,028 acres enrolled in the program (owned by 749 landowners), which is about 21.5 percent of the total forested acres in the county. In Winneshiek County, there are 26,932 acres in the program (owned by 1,009 landowners), which is about 41 percent of the eligible acres. In Clayton County, 52,378 acres are enrolled (owned by 1,060 landowners), which is 36.9 percent of the total forested acres, and in Fayette County there are 18,849 acres enrolled (owned by 565 landowners), which is 34 percent of the total eligible forested acres.
Tauke said in 2003, with funds from the U.S. Forest Service, a study was completed by the University of Northern Iowa. The study found that 85 percent of landowners live within 25 miles of their forest reserve, and 2.8 percent of the landowners live out of state.
Tauke said that an estimated $8,448,000 in tax revenue is not collected statewide due to the Forest Reserve Program, with an average of $85,333 per county that is “lost” due to the program, which is an average of four-tenths of one percent of county budgets statewide.  He says he put the word “lost” in quotation marks because it is not necessarily true that the counties will receive more money if the program is eliminated.
Tauke quoted Dubuque County Assessor Dave Kubik with his explanation of why counties will not end up with more income if the program is discontinued. “Needed income (for each county) divided by the taxable value equals the tax rate. So if the taxable value goes up (i.e. forest reserve is discontinued) then the tax rate would be reduced to produce the same amount of income.”
Some people do believe that the program creates an unfair burden on those who own land that is not enrolled in the program.
After Tauke’s presentation, members of the public were allowed to speak for up to three minutes. Approximately 25 people offered comment, pretty much all of whom were in favor of keeping the Forest Reserve Program. Some said the program needs tweaking, and several offered thoughts that out of state landowners should not be allowed to participate. Other comments from various individuals included:
“Removing the whole program would be a disaster.”
“If you take away the Forest Reserve Program the land will end up being developed, and once that happens it is gone forever.”
“It’s a great program. It isn’t broke, don’t try to fix it.”
“I can’t believe the state would be foolish enough to tax a forest the same as a farm. Let me know if the state is going to be that foolish, because then I want to invest in dozers and excavators.”
“I’ve planted more than 17,000 trees on my land. We aren’t rich, and it (the Forest Reserve Program) sure does help.”
“I am in favor of the program, but I would like to see a cap that only five percent of the eligible land in a county could be enrolled.”
“Once the land is cleared, how many years will it take to get it back (forested land) if we are making a mistake?”
“I want my son to come back to this area, and be proud of where he is from.”
“If the Forest Reserve program goes away, with commodity prices so high, clearing of the timber will begin.”
One man said he recently saw 80 acres near his farm cleared of all trees and planted in corn, and that anyone who believed that would not happen was wrong.
Another person had a more dramatic idea. “I think we should get rid of property taxes all together and base everything on income. We need to get rid of this old thinking that has been around forever.”
Another brought up that maybe the State should reimburse counties for income lost by State programs such as this.
Members of the public making comments were from people as local as Harpers Ferry, and from as far away as rural Jackson County, Elgin and Manly in Iowa.
Iowa Representative Bob Hager (R-Dorchester) spoke up as a co-sponsor of both of the proposed bills. He said many constituents have brought up the amount of State and Federal-owned lands in Allamakee County that they believe increases the amount of taxes they pay, and that is part of why he is co-sponsoring the bills. Hager said he really didn’t believe that people would clear timbered land to plant crops if the program ended. “I don’t think the bulldozers will come out,” he said.
Other sponsors of House File 680 include Curt Hanson, Ako Abdul-Samad and Brian Moore. Other sponsors of House File 681 include Curt Hanson, Mary Gaskill, Jerry Kearns, John Wittneben, Ako Abdul-Samad and Helen Miller.
Six of these meetings were planned around the state. The only other one in northeast Iowa will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, October 13 at the EB Lyons Interpretive Center (Mines of Spain State Park), 8991 Bellevue Hts., Dubuque. Written comments can be made by sending comments to paul.tauke@dnr.iowa.gov or by writing to Paul Tauke, IDNR Forestry Bureau 502 East 9th Street Des Moines, Iowa 50319-0034.
More information about the Forest Reserve Program can be found at http://www.iowadnr.gov/Environment/Forestry/ForestryLandownerAssistance/....