SB 296

Under current law, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) administers

the managed forest land program that exempts a landowner from payment of

municipal property taxes on land in the program in exchange for the landowner's

payment of an acreage share, which is lower than the municipal property tax, and

for the landowner's compliance with approved forestry and other conservation

practices. The duration of a managed forest land order may be either 25 or 50 years.

This bill allows the owner of managed forest land to apply to DNR for an

extension of a managed forest land order by an additional ten years from the date of

the expiration of the original order under certain circumstances. An owner may

apply for an extension of the order if 30 percent or more of the merchantable timber

on five or more contiguous acres of the managed forest land was adversely affected

by fire, ice, snow, insects, disease, wind, or flooding. The bill requires that the cause

of the adverse effect on the managed forest land must have occurred within 15 years

before the date of the expiration of the original order and must have resulted in a

reduction of 30 percent or more in stumpage value to the owner. "Stumpage value"

is the value of timber before it is cut as established in rules promulgated by DNR.

The application must be signed by the owner of the managed forest land and the

owner's eligibility for the extension must be certified by a DNR field forester. The

bill provides that, if the owner meets the requirements for the extension, DNR may

deny the application only if the owner has failed to comply with the management

plan for the managed forest land or if there are delinquent taxes on the land.