Assessors Manual, State of New York 

 Vol. IV Handbook for Rural Assessors 

 State Board of Equalization and Assess- 

 ment 1957 (rev. 1959), p. 203. 

 "The following State lands shall be subject 

 to taxation for all purposes : 



(a) All wild or forest lands owned by the 

 State within the forest preserve . . ." Par. 530 



"Assessment of State lands ; approval thereof 



1. State lands subject to taxation shall be 

 valued as if privately owned and assessed at the 

 same percentage of full valuation as other tax- 

 able real property in the assessing unit . . . 



3. No such assessment shall be valid for 

 any purpose without the approval of the State 

 Board . . ." Par. 542 Real Property Tax Law. 



NORTH CAROLINA 



"It is hereby declared to be the policy of 

 this State so to use its system of real estate 

 taxation as to encourage the conservation of 

 natural resources . . . and all tax assessors are 

 hereby instructed that in assessing real estate 

 . . . they shall make no increase in the tax valua- 

 tion of real estate as a result of the owner's 

 enterprise in adopting any one or more of the 

 following progressive policies : . . . 



"4. Protection of forest against fire. 

 "5. Planting of forest trees on vacant land 

 for reforestation purposes (for ten years after 

 such planting) ." Gen. Stat. 105-294. 



"In determining the value of land the as- 

 sessors shall consider as to each tract, parcel or 

 lot separately listed at least its advantages as 

 to location, quality of soil, quantity and quality 

 of timber, water power, water privileges, min- 

 eral or quarry or other valuable deposits, fertil- 

 ity, adaptability for agricultural, commercial or 

 industrial uses, the past income therefrom, its 

 probable future income, the present assessed 

 valuation, and any other factors which may 

 affect its value." Gen. Stat. 105-295. 



THE ASSESSMENT OF TIMBER 

 AND FOREST LAND 1 



"The kind of real property most nearly com- 

 parable to forest land itself is ordinary rural 

 agricultural and pasture land. The principles in- 

 volved there can, with slight modification, be 



1 This material is taken from the "Assessment of Real 

 Property for Taxation in North Carolina." Institute of 

 Government, Chapel Hill. pp. 147-163. 1948. 



The instructions, suggestions, and systems contained 

 in this publication are tentative or experimental in char- 

 acter and have not been officially adopted by the State. 



applied to forest land. In both cases value can 

 best be determined by analyzing the productive 

 capacity of the soil and its location. 



"Timber, apart from the forest land on which 

 it stands, is more nearly comparable to mineral 

 rights, since in both cases the thing appraised is 

 distinguished from the surface rights in the 

 land. 



"From these general observations, it is evi- 

 dent that the timber and the forest land must 

 be appraised separately for ad valorem tax pur- 

 poses, except in one particular situation to be 

 dealt with in a later section of this chapter. 



DEFINITION OF FOREST LAND 



"Forest land is defined as land bearing forest 

 growth, or land from which the forest has been 

 removed and which shows no evidence of any 

 other recent land use. . . . The test of whether 

 abandoned agricultural land should be consid- 

 ered forest land is whether it is at least 5% 

 stocked with trees. Assessors can determine 

 whether 5% stocking exists on an acre of land 

 by reference to the following table : 



// the tree diameter is: 



Seedlings 

 4 inches 

 6 inches 

 8 inches 



The number of trees per 



acre indicated below is 



required to make a 5% 



stocking : 



40 

 30 

 22 

 15 



"The term 'Waste land' as used in the general 

 section dealing with rural land has significance 

 in this discussion of forest land. As defined 

 earlier in this manual 'waste land' includes what 

 is generally called 'non-productive forest land.' 

 Such land is defined as forest land of such low 



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