Private forests, public benefit
To the editor:
I’ve spent my life around Georgia forestland.
Although I worked fulltime as a pharmacist for 14 years, I grew up in and around forestry and began managing timberland more directly four years ago.
Forests don’t manage themselves. They survive because someone shows up, year after year, with care, investment, and the freedom to make longterm decisions.
Private forests deliver huge public benefits: clean water, wildlife habitat, carbon storage, and rural jobs. Yet landowners are being asked to provide all this, without real support.
Georgia taxes timber at 100 percent of market value, unlike every other real asset, which is taxed at 40 percent.
A bill to fix Georgia’s timber severance tax, bringing us into parity with surrounding states, passed the House but stalled and ultimately failed in the Senate Finance Committee last session.
Where’s the support for those keeping the land in forests?
Margins are shrinking. We earn less per ton today than in the 1980s, while facing rising regulation and certification costs.
Non-native eucalyptus planted on former grasslands overseas can be certified “sustainable,” while native pine grown here often can’t access the same markets without costly certification.
And, most corporate “sustainability” boards don’t even include U.S. forest landowners as stakeholders.
Forest policy is backwards, and until we acknowledge this and work together, there will continue to be more friction between the environmental community and forest landowners.
Stewardship shouldn’t be punished.
If we want forests to endure, we need fair tax treatment, better market access, and practical incentives, not more red tape.
Drew Jones Folkston Pharmacist, Forestland Manager, Tree Farmer
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