With Forest Roads Win, Forestry Forces Turn Focus On Protecting Timber Tax Provisions

With the forest road issue settled for now in landowners’ favor, the forestry focus in Washington in coming months—or possibly the next couple of years—has turned to three tax provisions that are likely to be in jeopardy from efforts to overhaul the federal tax code.

Those timber tax provisions that have been in the tax code for some years allow for the annual deduction of reforestation costs of up to $10,000 per tract; deduction of most silviculture and management practices such as herbicides to control woody and weedy competition to planted pine stands and fertilization; and capital gains treatment of timber sales.

Whether forestry forces will be as successful with the proposed tax code changes as they were with the forest roads issue remains to be seen.  But many of the same organizations that joined forces to block the efforts by some environmental groups to require EPA permitting of forest road building and maintenance are already lining up for the tax code fight.

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