Wasn't sure where this would best fit and I'm sorry it's so long but, here you go! I see a lot of people who are trying to best manage their woodlots or other property and they struggle with the financial part to make their dreams a reality. I’m not a forester (but I play one on TV…) so I don’t pretend to have all the answers but I am a “Keystone Cooperator” graduate (read about that here: https://masskeystone.net/ so maybe I can help a little. My wife and I bought 25 acres of essentially hay field back in 2000 and I built a barn first (priorities) and then a house. We hayed the property and started “Deer Meadow Farm”. A few years ago we bought a 44 acre woodlot that abutted our current property. The first thing we did was we had it surveyed and then we called in a forester. We knew the forester we used as he went to high school a few grades behind me and my wife. If you don’t have a forester, you can contact your state forester and they can put you in touch with foresters best suited for your land goals. You need to know what you want to do with the property. Our land is steep, mostly hardwoods: oaks, hickory, birch, maples, ash and cherry. Poplar as well. The only softwood we have is white pine and not a lot of it. The property had been logged at one time, maybe in the 50’s or 60’s so there were a couple of old logging/skidder trails. Our goal was: Be able to harvest our own cordwood for our wood boiler Increase the trails/access Improve the wildlife habitat Potentially have some sort of timber harvest in our lifetime After looking the property over, our forester talked about options. One bonus was he had found an area with a good amount of sugar maples so sugaring was quickly added to the list of what we wanted to do. In Massachusetts, there is a tax break for people who keep their land in open (undeveloped) condition. The code is called “Chapter 61” which basically gives you a tax break as long as you promise not to develop it. This does not mean that you never can, but you pay a penalty, typically about 3 years back taxes. If you want to sell the property, the town has first right of refusal for the property. It’s really a win-win situation. There are 3 parts to this tax code: Chapter 61 – Forestry. You need 10 acres of woods minimum and you must file a 10-year cutting plan with the state that is approved by your state forester. You can change this by discussing it with your forester as you go along. (Wood markets change, etc.) Chapter 61A – Agriculture. You need a minimum of 5 acres to qualify less whatever part/minimal house lot size your home occupies. This requires that you file every year. Basically it states what you grow, how many acres are actively farmed and how much you made the previous year. The land must make a minimum of $500/year. Chapter 61B – Recreational. This is the one I know the least about because we don’t use it ourselves, but basically it gives a tax break for land you leave open for recreation. It is often mistakenly thought that you need to open your property to the public if you get this break, but that is not true. It is probably the least best tax break out of the three. Since this is a firewood forum, I’ll only talk about chapter 61 forestry. Our tax bill when we bought the 44 acre woodlot was around $300-$500 per quarter. It had road frontage for one house lot so it was assessed and taxed as one big lot for years. After having our cutting plan approved by the state forester and obtaining chapter 61 status, our taxes dropped to around $30 per quarter! Our cutting plan is simple; we stated that we would cut 10 cords of firewood off the property each year. This is what we basically use with some to spare/sell. NRCS – Natural Resources Conservation Service (part of the US Department of Agriculture) My forester suggested I look into some of the cost share programs that NRCS could offer. I contacted my local office and met with a representative there. He looked at my cutting plan that was filed and used the computer to map out the property including the original hay field/farm land. We talked about what we’d like to accomplish and he got a feel for what we could do ourselves vs. what we couldn’t do. He made a site visit and we walked the property. After talking with us, seeing the property and seeing what we could do, he put together 4 contract measures. Brush management: One thing that both the farm and woodlot had was a lot of invasive plant species. This first one was considered “Moderate” and the contract allowed for 2 chemical treatments. The area was mainly in the woodlot area and comprised of about 5.6 acres. The allowed payment was $817.44/acre. My forester did the spraying for $2500.00 total so when I get paid for this one I will gain about $2,000.00 Access control: This measure basically consisted of marking/blazing our boundaries. Since we had the property surveyed when we bought it, this was relatively easy for us to do ourselves. Basically all we had to do was blaze trees along the borders and paint them. We went a little extra and had some 4” diamond shaped signs with the farm name, etc. on it that we used in areas where the property was seen by other abutters just so they didn’t have to look at a bright red blaze on the trees. We had to notify all abutters via. registered mail. The border was approx. 5142 feet (we didn’t mark where the woodlot bordered the original farm) and it paid $0.19/foot. Even after paying for the signs ($262.50), postage ($37.95) and aluminum nails ($5.10) we still came out ahead by $670. Forest Stand Improvement: This is usually used to thin areas for better cash trees. In our case, our NRCS rep made it into a “crop tree release” in our sugar maple area. The measure called for 20 trees per acre to be released within the management stand. The trees were marked by my forester (around $400-$600) and the plan was approved. This measure allowed for $567.22/acre over a 3.2 acre area. This is something I can obviously do, but I took it one step further. I contacted the local Game of Logging instructor and asked if he needed a location to host classes. He did so we’ve had 4 or 5 classes so far with another 2 scheduled for this spring. He comes in with the students and teaches them chainsaw safety/felling techniques and my marked trees get cut for free. This is scheduled to pay out $1,816.00 when I complete it this year, so I’ll be $1,400 ahead of the game. Brush management: This was the worst and costliest contract item. This portion of invasive plant species controlled was actually all on the farm porting of the property and was actually areas of abandoned field that grew up crazily. Multiflora rose, bittersweet, barberry, etc. The majority of the trees in the area were completely choked out Plants were over my head in most areas. The measure called for mechanical removal followed by a chemical spraying after the area re-sprouted. We hired a guy who had a skid-steer mounted forestry mulcher and a large excavator to remove what he could. I worked alongside him with a chainsaw and forestry saw. The cost of the equipment work totaled $5,000. The forester charged another $2,500 - $3,000 to spray and this was a heavily affected area. The payout upon completion was $6,438.00 so in this particular contract item I was behind by $1,500+. The thing is, by working with the rep, we were able to group several contract items over a 3 year period. He knew that we would be ahead on some of them and behind on others. I don’t think that he figured I’d be this much ahead over the entire project, but it just worked out that way. Even if you can’t do any of the work yourself getting 50%-70% of it paid to improve your own property is a good deal in my book!
Thanks for the info on your plan. I will probably make a post about what I would like to do on my plan, as I do not yet have a definite plan. As for now, your #1 and #4 are both "brush management." Is that correct? Also, what is a "forestry saw?" Is that same as a brush cutter / clearing saw?
Deer Meadow Farm thanks for the very informative post. I am going to look into this for sure. Not sure if we have the same type program here in New Brunswick Canada but forestry is big business here for sure. thanks again!
Yes, #1 and #4 are brush management but they are classified different because of the level of infestation and the equipment needed to control it. I call it a forestry saw. I guess Husqvarna calls it a Forestry Clearing Saw. This is what I bought: Husqvarna Forestry Clearing Saws 555FX
