Timberland Security: a necessary investment to protect your property

Dumping and trespassing are a problem in virtually all rural areas in the southeast.  Whether they are poaching, hiking, or dumping trash on your property, trespassers are a liability risk to your property.  Taking action against trespassing is necessary to protect your investment.

For absentee landowners (landowners who do not live on their forestland), it can be difficult to monitor and control access to your property.  We encourage our clients to take at least a few of the following steps to protect their property:

1) Post your property.  Putting up "POSTED" signs along your property lines in 150-200ft intervals legally posts your property and enables you to take legal action against trespassers.  This also serves as a sign to trespassers that the landowner is taking an active role in preventing illegal activity on their property.

2) Paint the property lines.  If the property lines are easily discernible, either you or your forester can paint a 4" stripe on the boundary line trees along your property line.  This makes your property lines absolutely clear, not just for trespassers, but also for timber buyers.  Once you get a property surveyed, painting the lines every 5-8 years can protect your property from trespassing or encroachment and prevent the need for another survey in the future if you sell your property or harvest timber along the property line.


3) Put gates on the forest roads.  Putting gates on forest roads can prevent nearly all large vehicle traffic on your property.  While 4-wheelers, dirtbikes, and other small vehicle traffic might still be an issue, putting gates on the entrances can prevent trucks and other SUVs from entering the property, damaging roads, and dumping trash.

4) Lease the property to a hunting club.  If you are an absentee landowner, leasing your property to a hunt club can bring in some extra income to pay for real estate taxes and to ensure that there will be a local presence on your tract.  A good hunt club will typically help maintain the property and inform the landowner of any trespassing, dumping, or other issues.

Preventing trespassing on your land is necessary to prevent poaching, dumping, and vandalism.  Simple steps such as posting your property and putting up gates on forest roads can prevent a majority of the problems associated with trespassers.

If your are interested in any of these activities, please contact us.  Timber Marketing and Management of the Carolinas can post and paint your property lines or install gates on your forest roads or find a contractor who can do so.  We also manage hunt club leases for landowners.

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The North Carolina Present-Use Valuation Program

The present-use valuation program allows landowners to reduce the annual property taxes they pay by assessing their land’s value at its current use rather than at the market value of the land.  While the market value of land in North Carolina can range from $1,000- to over $10,000 per acre, its present-use value as timberland will be significantly lower than that.  Enrolling your forestland in this program could potentially save you over $1,000 in property taxes per year.

Requirements

Just because you own timberland does not make you eligible for the present-use program.  There are several criteria both you and your land must meet to be eligible.

Forestland acreage and income requirements:

1. The land in question must have at least 20 acres of contiguous forestland being produced for timber.  This tract is called the “parent tract.”  Once the parent tract is accepted into the present-use program, smaller tracts may be brought into the program as long as they are owned by the same owner, being produced for timber, and be either in the same county or within 50 miles of the parent tract if the smaller tract is not in the same county.
2. Forestland is not required to produce annual income, but the tract must be managed with a harvest schedule in place.

Landowner requirements:

1. Owner qualifications.  The following landowners qualify for this program:
1. An individual landowner
2. A business such as a limited liability corporation, a closely-held corporation, or a general partnership
3. A testamentary trust
4. Tenants in common
   
   
2. Ownership requirements:
1. When qualifying a new tract for the present-use valuation program, the landowner must have owned the tract for at least 4 years.
2. If the landowner acquires a tract that is already in the present-use valuation program, the land will remain in the program provided that the landowner continues to manage for forest production.

How to get into the program

Qualifying landowners who want to be enrolled in the present-use valuation program must file an application and a forest management plan written by a registered forester to their county tax office.  The management plan must include:

-          A description of the landowner’s objectives

-          Location maps, aerial photographs, and descriptions of the land

-          Sound forest management prescriptions

-          A description of the forestland that includes the stand size, age, site productivity, and conditions of each stand described

-          A harvest and activities schedule

The landowner must file this application within the county’s listing period (usually the month of January).

How to stay in the program

At least one eighth of the parcels in the present-use valuation program are required to be reviewed annually by tax assessors.  In order to stay in the program, the landowner must show that they qualify for the program and that they are complying with the forest management plan and activities schedule.

Summary

North Carolina’s forestry present-use value program is an excellent way for forest landowners to save tax dollars every year.  If you would like more information about qualifying for the present-use value program, please contact us.  Timber Marketing and Management of the Carolinas has been helping landowners in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia manage their forestland since 1992 and can help you get qualified for the present use-value program.  We also offer timber sale, timber management, timber appraisal, reforestation, and real estate brokerage services. 

You may call us at (919) 846-7520 or toll free at (800) 962-2281.

You can also find us online at www.tmmoc.com.