Can
woodlands offer more than just hunting opportunities and timber income?
Developing and expanding various natural resource enterprises on your property
can increase income while at the same time continue to provide recreational
enjoyment. Far too often, woodland owners consider logging or timber
sales as their only option for generating income. There is nothing wrong with
implementing a sustainable timber harvest. However you may want to consider
other possible endeavors to generate income from your property.
Unless
you own considerable acreage, income from timber harvesting is periodic. With
rotations stretching to 100 years on our oak and cherry forests, generating
income even every 20 years can be a challenge. With property taxes, repairs,
snow removal and other expenses accumulating on an annual basis, it is to the
landowner’s advantage to cultivate annual income in addition to the periodic
income they may be currently settling for. Identifying enterprise
ventures from natural resource assets will potentially generate
annual income from properties making for a more even cash flow.
Enterprises can be various business activities that
range from utilizing products already established on the property to cultivation and propagation of new products.
Promotion of pay to hunt or eco-tourism opportunities on
ownerships could also be interesting as well as profitable natural resource
based ventures.
Some annual enterprise opportunities are more
common place; firewood or tapping maples for syrup production for example.
Others may be less common, for instance harvesting wild mushroom or growing ginseng. Soil types, marketing
availability, available investment assets, size of ownerships may all be
barriers to some projects however some projects however some new options are
probably available for most landowners to consider.
September 23, 2014 by Mike Schira, Michigan State University Extension
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