Whether you’ve flown over our state or driven through it, you probably think of Georgia as a state filled with trees. And it is. But you may not realize that more than 90 percent of those trees – so crucial to the air we breathe, the water we drink and many of the jobs on which Georgians are dependent – are owned by private landowners. As Congress considers how to reform our country’s tax code, there are provisions that are critical to keeping Georgia full of these economically and environmentally important forestlands.
Of the 24.3 million acres of forest in Georgia, 91 percent are privately owned – more than any other state in the nation. Forest landowners – large and small – invest in managing healthy forests that benefit every Georgian. These are called “working forests” because they increase the economic vitality of the state and provide environmental benefits to every citizen.
Working forests support more than 133,000 jobs across Georgia and provide an annual $28.9 billion boost to the state’s economy. But the impact isn’t limited to rural Georgia. According to the Georgia Institute of Technology, forest landowners and forestry-related industries provide $3.8 billion in total economic output, $861 million in wages and salaries and 13,880 jobs to the 10 core counties that comprise metro Atlanta as defined by the Atlanta Regional Commission.
Georgia is covered in more trees today than 75 years ago, thanks to markets for working forests. Working forests are planted, harvested and replanted to produce the raw materials for common consumer products we use every day – and, increasingly, as a source of energy. While these forests are growing, they are also working to sequester carbon from the air, filter our drinking water and provide habitat to thousands of animals – a value estimated by the University of Georgia at $37.6 billion annually. As long as the landowners can harvest trees and replant them, we can look forward to the economic and environmental benefits they provide.
Current tax provisions include allowing landowners to deduct the annual costs associated with growing healthy, sustainable timberlands. According to research by F&W Forestry Services that analyzed the impacts on a typical Georgia forestland owner, removing these provisions would reduce returns and cash flows by almost one-third. Without healthy markets for trees and fair and reasonable federal tax policy that recognizes the long-term investments and responsible land management of forestland owners, we risk losing timberlands permanently to development.
In a recent letter to U.S. House of Representatives leadership on the Ways and Means tax writing committee, Reps. Buddy Carter, Sanford Bishop, Lynn Westmoreland, Austin Scott, Doug Collins, Jody Hice , Rick Allen and Tom Graves said eliminating these provisions “would amount to an effective tax increase for hundreds of rural communities still struggling to rebound from the recession and would create uncertainty for the future of 470 million acres of privately owned forests and the many economic and environmental benefits they currently provide.”
A healthy and vital forestry economy is essential to Georgia. We should expect federal policy to support an industry that helps our economy and our ecosystem. The current timber tax provisions are a great example of how Washington can help, not hinder, growth and prosperity in our state.
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