forest acreage falls within the productive classi- 

 fication (Fi), there are isolated areas, particu- 

 larly in the far northern counties where dis- 

 tance from the available market and local topog- 

 raphy make the harvesting of such forest prod- 

 ucts unprofitable. Under such circumstances 

 the assessor should regard such acreage as non- 

 productive (F2) and adjust his values accord- 

 ingly. 



The assessment of forest lands requires as 

 much care and knowledge as do the other 

 classes of property and to cope with this chal- 

 lenge the assessor should equip himself with a 

 knowledge of species and kinds of forest prod- 

 ucts harvested in his taxing jurisdiction. The 

 amount of forest products on a given descrip- 

 tion can only be ascertained through inspection 

 by the assessor or from accurate cruise reports. 

 Where such cruise reports are not available the 

 assessor should resort to volume tables to esti- 

 mate the number of board feet of saw logs or 

 cords of pulpwood and other products on a given 

 description. Stumpage values are made avail- 

 able to assessors each year by the Supervisors 

 of Assessments based on information obtained 

 from the Wisconsin Conservation Department 

 and University Extension Service. Such pricing 

 guides, with necessary area adjustments for 

 transportation and other unusual factors, are 

 reliable guides for establishing the market 

 value of forest land. 



The first step in valuing forest land is to esti- 

 mate the value of the bare land. To this bare 

 land value is added the stumpage value of the 

 trees thereon and this combined value becomes 

 the net value of the forest land. 



Bare land values are best found by analyzing 

 sales of recently clear cut or cut-over land sold 

 for forest plantation purposes. Lands purchased 

 for recreational or scenic purposes introduce an 

 additional dimension of value which must even- 

 tually be recognized, but which is best not con- 

 sidered in estimating bare land value. 



The second step is to estimate the stumpage 

 value of the forest growth as found. The essen- 

 tial information needed for this purpose is: 



1. Kind and amount of merchantable for- 

 est products found on the land. 



2. Respective unit market prices of the for- 

 est products (From Wisconsin Conserva- 

 tion Department and University Exten- 

 sion Service — Published annually). 



The kind and amount of merchantable forest 

 products are most accurately determined from 

 reports of skilled timber cruisers. Satisfactory 

 results have also been obtained through the in- 

 terpretation of special aerial photography by 



highly skilled specialists. Lacking this informa- 

 tion the assessor's next best alternative is to 

 establish the kind of forest product by his own 

 visual inspection and to estimate the amount by 

 making use of the volume table found on page 

 46. 



USE OF VOLUME TABLE 



In order to use the volume table the assessor 

 must first establish the class of "stocking" or 

 tree stem density. Since tree growth does not 

 always uniformly cover the area of land and 

 since "stocking" is also dependent upon the size 

 and diameter of the trees, the following tables 

 and pictures are provided as guide lines for 

 the assessor. 



Table 1 





Stocking Class or Density 





Good 



Medium 



Poor 



Area Covered by 

 Growing Trees 



69-100% 



40-69% 



10-39% 



Table 2 



Size Class 



Seedling-Sapling 



0—5" @4J4'._. 

 Pole Timber 



5—11" @4J*'-- 

 Small Saw Timber 



11-15" @ 4K'_. 

 Large Saw Timber 



15"+ @ 4' 2 '_. 



Stocking Class or Density 



Good 



Medium 



Poor 



(Number of trees per acre) 



1400 4- 



800-1400 



100-330 



60-325 



50-175 



30-170 



60-80 



35-65 



200-800 



25-225 



15-85 



10-35 



SUGGESTED STUMPAGE VALUES 



The following values have been determined 

 for the purpose of computing severance taxes 

 on timber cut from forest croplands and are in 

 effect from September 1, 1964 to August 31, 

 1965. 



89 



