productivity value, particularly in 

 Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas 

 (Lee and Richards, personal 

 communications). 



In Texas, for example, registration 

 of forest land by owners under the 

 present use assessment law is 

 voluntary, not mandatory. But in 

 the 37 East Texas counties, nearly 

 70 percent of the 10.5 million acres 

 (4.2 million ha) of privately owned 

 forest land have been so 

 registered. 



At the request of the Texas 

 Property Tax Board, Texas A. & M. 

 forest science faculty members 

 Robert Baker, a remote sensing 

 and forest valuation expert, and 

 David Moehring, a forest soil 

 scientist, worked together to 

 develop a system for classification 

 and valuation of forest land. Over 

 the 37-county area. Baker used 

 high-altitude aerial photographs to 

 classify such lands by school 

 districts into one of three forest 

 types. Moehring used general soil 

 group maps to develop four 

 productivity classes equivalent to 

 USDA Forest Service forest 

 survey system site classes. Forest 

 survey data were then used to 

 develop estimates of average net 

 growth per acre per year for each 

 of the 12 type-productivity 

 categories of the 3x4 matrix. 



To establish the net earnings per 

 year, the "Timber Mart South" 

 private market newsletter was used 

 as a source of yearly stumpage 

 prices. Annual management costs 



were developed by surveying 

 forest owners. Price and cost data 

 have been updated annually as a 

 basis for continual adjustment of 

 capitalized values on a moving 

 5-year average basis. 



Effects have varied. Owners with 

 lands near urban areas have 

 experienced tax savings. Owners 

 of rural forest lands have 

 sometimes had increases. But the 

 overall effect has been a reduction 

 of $2.00 to $4.00 per acre ($5 to 

 $10 per ha), for an aggregate 

 annual saving in the range of $14 

 million to $28 million (Baker, 

 personal communication). 



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