Legislation Aims To Help Forest Landowners Recover After Natural Disasters

Bi-partisan legislation was introduced in the U.S. Congress to allow private forest landowners to recover from the loss of timber destroyed by natural disasters and reforest their land.

The Disaster Reforestation Act proposes to fix a shortcoming in the federal tax code to allow landowners to deduct the full value of their timber destroyed during natural disaster events. The legislation is sponsored in the House by Reps. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) and Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) and in the Senate by Senators Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.).

Unlike producers of other agriculture products, forest landowners don’t receive regular income from their forests and they must wait decades for their timber to mature to market. Fixing the casualty loss issue would support continued investment in private forests and its ripple effects on rural economies and the environment.

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