In the modified property tax group, 11 laws were 
enacted during the review period. Of particular 
interest were “present use’’ assessment provisions 
adopted by Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, and 
Pennsylvania in which land use planning or zoning 
aspects were introduced. Also breaking new 
ground were the Western Oregon Small Tract 
Optional Tax, the Minnesota Tree Growth Tax 
Law, and the North Dakota Native Woodland 
Tax. The first makes use of a statutory cash value 
per acre based upon site class, the second utilizes 
as a tax base estimated average annual growth 
rates per acre by species, and the third permits 
use of a tax rate negotiated between the State 
Forester and County Commissioners. The full 
list of new laws follows: 
Modified assessment } 
Connecticut (1963) New Jersey (1964) 
Florida (1959) New Mexico (1967) 
Hawaii (1961) Oregon-2 laws(1961) 
Maryland (1968) Pennsylvania (1965) 
Modified rate 
Minnesota (1957) 
North Dakota (1967) 
In addition to the new provisions listed, the Digest 
contains a summary of the 1954 Chase Law in 
Maine. Originally regarded primarily as an assess- 
ment guide, the law is now seen to have been a 
forerunner of the growing number of modified 
property tax provisions seeking to relate the tax 
burden more closely to productivity in timber 
growing use. 
Since 1957 additional acreage has been entered 
under several of the older optional laws and grow- 
ing interest is indicated in a number of the newer 
provisions for which data are available (table 2). 
In three States the acreage classified approaches 
or exceeds a quarter of a million acres although 
the total area classified is not, with one exception, 
more than 5 percent of the total commercial forest 
land in private ownership. 
Amendments during the period to the older 
laws were of minor character. Among the more 
recent laws need for amendment has stemmed from 
the experimental character of such legislation. 
Thus basic changes were made in the original form 
of the Florida Green Belt Law (substitution of 
a mandatory for an optional zoning requirement), 
and in the Western Oregon Ad Valorem Tax 
(introduction of optional provisions relating to 
' Modified assessment provisions relating to farmlands 
apply in some cases to farm woodlands; such laws are included 
in the Digest only if forest land is specifically mentioned. See 
Hady, Thomas F., and Thomas F. Stinson, Taxation of Farm- 
land on the Rural-Urban Fringe, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 
Economic Research Service, Agric. Econ. Report No. 119, 
80 pp. 1967. 
“designation”’ of forest lands having a higher value 
in nonforest use). 
The modified property tax laws as a group are 
at this time the center of interest in the forest 
tax field. It is here that the greatest resourceful- 
ness and originality are being shown. Develop- 
ment is continuing and the full potential of the 
movement for property tax modification does not 
yet appear to have been realized. 
In the yield tax group two laws were enacted 
during the period under review: 
Hawaii—Tree Farm Law (1963) 
Eastern Oregon Severance Tax? (1961) 
In addition to the above, the 1910 Louisiana 
Reforestation Contract Severance Tax?, omitted 
from the previous edition, has again been included 
in the Digest. The yield tax portion of the law 
was suspended in 1954 as to new entries, although 
substantial acreage classified before that time 
remains under contract. More recent entries under 
the Louisiana law have utilized the fixed assess- 
ment provisions relating to bare land value. The 
law has thus become, in effect, a modified assess- 
ment provision. 
As indicated in table 2, 9 out of 14 optional 
yield tax laws showed an increase of area classified. 
In a number of instances the gain was appreciable, 
and in 5 States the area classified now approximates 
5 percent or more of the private commercial forest 
area of the State. 
Over half the yield tax laws were amended dur- 
ing the review period. Changes were for the most 
part of an administrative nature, although eligi- 
bility requirements were revised in one State 
(Connecticut) and the tax on bare land was in- 
creased in two States (Minnesota and Washing- 
ton). More basic changes were proposed in the 
Wisconsin Forest Crop Law but these have not 
as yet been adopted. 
The yield tax group as a whole changed but 
little over the review period. The chief develop- 
ment was the enactment of the mandatory Eastern 
Oregon Law. This has been attributed to the 
interest of timber operators who had migrated 
from the South where the harvest tax principle 
is often used. The other new enactment, the op- 
tional Tree Farm Law in Hawaii, has had no 
acreage classified under it. 
In the severance tax group no laws were repealed 
or enacted during the period 1957-1967. Tax 
rates were increased in a few cases, but aside from 
this changes were minor. With no new provisions 
of this type since adoption of the Virginia severance 
tax in 1948, the situation, at least for the present, 
has stabilized. 
2 Classified here as a yield tax. 
