Timber Tax Update for the 2014 Tax Year

I wanted to share this webinar by Linda Wang, National Tax Specialist, with you.  If you are preparing your taxes for 2014 this webinar may be of some help.

Title: TimberTax Update for the 2014 Tax Year

What will you learn?
This webinar is designed to help woodland owners, foresters and their tax advisors prepare for the filing of their 2014 federal tax returns. In addition to providing useful tax tips and covering the latest changes to tax law, the webinar will also cover these important issues: tax deductions, timber income reporting, 1099-S filing, basis, loss, and the filing of Form T. learn more here...

Presenters/Authors:
Dr. Linda Wang, National Timber Tax Specialist, USDA Forest Service, Washington Office

Education Credits from the following organizations continuing education programs have been approved or applied for:
Society of American Foresters - 1 hour Category 1 Credit    [status: Applied For]

Session Details:
Feb 5, 2015 2:00 pm US/Eastern     Duration: 01:00 (hh:mm)
*** Please join the session 15 minutes prior to the start of the webinar. ***

Who should participate?
Foresters, Landowners, Land Managers, Accountants, CPA's, Financial Advisors

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This webinar is sponsored by: USDA Forest Service, Southern Regional Extension Forestry, North Carolina State University, Texas A&M Agrilife Extension

Announcing Penn State's 2015 Private Forest Landowners Conference

It's time to mark your calendars for the second Private Forest Landowners Conference: The Future of Penn’s Woods which will take place March 20-21, 2015 at the Blair County Convention Center in Altoona, PA. The biennial conference, hosted by The Center for Private Forests at Penn State and its partners, focuses on helping private woodland owners understand how to steward their lands for a mix of values and needs.

Pennsylvania has almost 750,000 woodland landowners making decisions on 11.5 million acres of forestland, or 70% of the nearly 17 million acres of forested land in the state. Approximately 500,000 of those landowners hold 10 acres or less - the average is just 3 acres. Big or small, the decisions all private woodland owners make about their forests affect the well-being of our state’s namesake – Penn’s Woods.

From suburban backyard habitat to large properties with a focus on hunting or income, woodland owners want to do well by their land. Opportunities to learn and understand our options and possibilities help ensure that good decisions demonstrating care for the land are made.

Whether your woodlot is one acre or several thousand, we hope you will join us for this day and a half conference, where you can learn about your property and how it contributes to habitat, water quality and woodland diversity. Your land and everyone else’s is part of a larger landscape where we connect with each other. Together, we must care for Penn’s Woods.

The conference will include options such as field tours and a banquet, outstanding keynote addresses from nationally-renowned speakers, and myriad presentation and workshop opportunities to learn more about the values you hold for your woods and the goals to set for your property. The conference has also been designed so that you will have significant opportunities to meet new and old friends who share your passion for woodland values.

Shorter Winters Present Challenges for Loggers

Climate change and it’s impact on forests is most certainly a hot topic these days with questions such as; How is climate change impacting our forests? What species will grow in a certain area? How fast will forests change, etc.  However, new research has revealed that loggers, not just foresters and forests, are having to adapt and change the way they operate in the wake of climate change.  And, unfortunately, our entire industry might suffer.

The study, published in the current issue of the Journal of Environmental Management, found the period of frozen ground has declined by an average of two or three weeks since 1948. Logging trucks and skidders have a harder time accessing forests with wet, unfrozen soil - and can leave their marks along the way. During that time wood harvests have shifted, in years with more variability in freezing and thawing, to red pine and jack pine -- species that grow in sandy, well-drained soil that can support trucks and heavy equipment when not frozen.

Stable, frozen ground has long been recognized as a logger's friend, capable of supporting equipment and trucks on saturated forest soils. A comprehensive look at the weather by scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1948 onward has shown that the logger's friend is melting.

This may also be an issue in Pennsylvania. I recently oversaw the harvest of a stand of timber Penn State owns. It is obvious the window when logging can occur during dry or frozen conditions is very short. Is this what others are seeing? Is this the result of climate change or have we been dealing with these issues for years/decades?

Click here to read the full story published in Science Daily.