IS IT TIME TO RE-CERTIFY YOUR LAND?

Tree Growth – also known as the Maine Tree Growth Tax Program – is Maine’s current use tax program for productive forestland. The program is administered in organized municipalities by town assessors and in the unorganized territories by Maine Revenue Service’s Property Tax Division. “Current use” means that enrolled land is valued according to its ability to grow trees for commercial use, rather than according to its fair market value. This often results in a significantly reduced property tax bill for enrolled landowners.

Tree Growth can be a beneficial program for landowners who manage their land sustainably for commercial forest products. In exchange for generally lower property valuations, landowners commit to following a written Forest Management Plan prepared by a Maine licensed forester. A licensed forester must also certify that landowners are following their plan.

Landowners are required to submit a signed Tree Growth Application and a supporting map to the assessing agent. The details of the forest management plan belong to the landowner and are not public information, although the Assessor may request a copy of the plan and hold it for a reasonable period of time for review.

The Maine Forest Service (MFS) provides assistance and education about the Tree Growth Tax Program, and forest management and planning in general, but does not administer the Tree Growth Tax program.

Landowners should be aware of some very important requirements:

1) Land enrolled in Tree Growth must be recertified every ten years. Written management plans must be updated at least once in a ten year period.

Could this be your year to update your plan and recertify?

2) In addition, when Tree Growth land is purchased, inherited, or otherwise acquired, new landowners must re-enroll within one year of the date of transfer. New landowners may not harvest timber until they have had a new forest management plan prepared or adopted a previous but still valid plan, and re-enrolled.

Have you acquired or inherited forest land recently?

Why is this important?

Because Tree Growth forest land that no longer complies with the program – including failure to recertify or to re-enroll on time– must be withdrawn from the program, with potentially significant monetary penalties to the landowner. Withdrawal can occur even if you were not the owner at the time the land was first enrolled, because Tree Growth status “runs with the land” – the parcel remains enrolled, even if it changes hands.

NOTE: The assessing agent is required to provide a sixty-day notification before withdrawing a parcel from Tree Growth if the sole reason for withdrawal is failure to file recertification paper work in a timely manner. The sixty days is not intended to start the process of hiring a consulting forester to complete the necessary work involved in updating a forest management plan. So the message here is, be proactive!

What should you do?

If you have not tracked your forest management activities consistently over the years, you can avoid significant cost and aggravation by taking a few simple steps now:

Ø      First, determine if your land is enrolled in Tree Growth (if you’re not sure).

Ø      If yes, locate the Forest Management Plan and, if available, a copy of the most recent Tree Growth Application that was submitted. (Other property tax records are helpful.)

Ø      Determine when your re-enrollment or re-certification is due.

Ø      Contact your consulting forester about the recommendations in your plan. Even if you are not due for recertification, it may be a good time to update your plan.

April 1^st Tree Growth Deadline – new enrollments for 2012

If you are considering enrolling forest land in Tree Growth for the first time, the deadline for the 2012 property tax year for submitting the Tree Growth Application to your local assessor (or Maine Revenue Service’s Property Tax Division, if your land is in an unorganized township) is April 1^st, 2012. Information submitted after that date may not be considered until the 2013 tax year.

With your application, you must submit a map of the parcel identifying the acres you are enrolling.

In practice that means that landowners should contact a consulting forester well in advance of the April 1^st deadline for assistance in preparing a plan and submitting the documentation to the town. Due to their typical workloads, foresters may not be able to assist landowners who wait until the final weeks before the deadline.

If you need help contacting a licensed forester, or have questions about Tree Growth, the Maine Forest Service will assist or refer you to the Maine Revenue Services (which oversees the program). Please call your MFS District Forester or MFS Augusta at 1-800-367-0223.

President’s signature follows Congressional approval of Senator Collins’ provision to allow heavier trucks to use Maine’s federal interstates for at least 20 years

Senator Susan Collins

WASHINGTON, D.C.-President Obama, this morning, signed the Fiscal Year 2012 Transportation funding bill that includes a provision, written by Senator Susan Collins, that will allow the heaviest trucks to travel on federal interstates in Maine for 20 years instead of forcing them off the highways and onto Maine’s secondary roads and downtown streets.

While the Senate originally approved Senator Collins’ provision to make this change permanent, the House never approved a similar provision.  As the top Republican on the Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, and a member of the conference committee charged with working out the differences between the two bills, Senator Collins successfully negotiated this 20-year compromise agreement.

Senator Collins has led the effort to allow trucks weighing up to 100,000 pounds to travel on Maine’s federal interstates -including I-95, 195, 295, and 395.  Senator Collins has worked closely with Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), also a member of the Transportation Subcommittee, and this agreement for Maine is paired with a similar change for Vermont.

“This is a major accomplishment and I am delighted to have successfully negotiated this agreement.  Moving these trucks from our downtown streets and onto the federal interstates where they belong has always been one of my top transportation priorities,” said Senator Collins.  “The agreement that I negotiated to allow the heaviest trucks on the highway for the next 20 years will help shippers, truckers, and Maine’s job creators.  More important, it will improve safety for Mainers who live, work, and go to school along the secondary roads, and busy downtowns where these trucks are currently forced to travel.

“I appreciate the strong support I received from so many public safety groups, including the Maine State Police, the Maine Department of Public Safety, and the Bangor Police Department, as well as education and industry groups like the Maine Motor Transport Association.  Together, we were able to achieve a major victory that will make a real difference to many Mainers and our economy,” Senator Collins continued.

Senator Collins’ effort is supported by the Association of Police, the Maine State Police, the State Troopers Association, the Maine Department of Public Safety, the Chiefs of Police, the Maine Motor Transport Association, the Parent Teacher Association, and the Bangor School Department, who have all expressed the importance of safety in getting these heaviest trucks off our local roadways and onto the interstates where they belong.

Currently, the heaviest trucks in Maine are diverted onto secondary roadways that cut through our downtowns on narrow streets, creating a major safety concern.  In most of the surrounding New England states and nearby Canadian provinces, the heaviest trucks are free to use the interstates, but not in Maine and Vermont.  This puts Maine businesses at a distinct competitive disadvantage.  Heavy trucks already operate on some 22,500 miles of non-interstate roads in Maine, in addition to the approximately 109 miles of the Maine Turnpike.  But the nearly 260 miles of non-Turnpike interstates that are major economic corridors are off limits.

In 2009, a pilot project that Senator Collins wrote, was included in the 2010 Omnibus Appropriations bill.  This one-year pilot project allowed trucks weighing up to 100,000 pounds to travel on Maine’s federal interstates.  According to the Maine Department of Transportation, during the one-year period covered by the pilot, the number of crashes involving trucks on Maine’s local roads was reduced by 72 compared to a five-year average.

Referendum/Bond Issues
People’s veto – Voter Registration Do you want to reject the section of Chapter 399 of the Public Laws of 2011 that requires new voters to register to vote at least two business days prior to an election?
Yes	204,987	60.48%
No	133,929	39.52%
Racinos in Biddeford and Washington County Do you want to allow a slot machine facility at a harness racing track in Biddeford or another community within 25 miles of Scarborough Downs, subject to local approval, and at a harness racing track in Washington County, with part of the profits from these facilities going to support specific state and local programs?
Yes	151,645	44.85%
No	186,469	55.15%
Casino in Lewiston Do you want to allow a casino with table games and slot machines in Lewiston, with part of the profits going to support specific state and local programs?
Yes	123,692	36.58%
No	214,406	63.42%
Constitutional Amendment – Redistricting Do you favor amending the Constitution of Maine to change the years of redistricting the Maine Legislature, congressional districts and county commissioner districts after 2013 from 2023 and every 10th year thereafter to 2021 and every 10th year thereafter?
Yes	169,883	52.87%
No	151,431	47.13%

See more voting results on BangorDailyNews.com

By Beth Quimby

BRUNSWICK – A group of Japanese logging professionals is looking to Maine as a model for sustainable forestry methods.

The group from Miyazaki Prefecture, on the southern island of Kyushu, is developing a program that certifies its practices as safe and environmentally sound. To learn about Maine’s [Master Logger Certification] program, it is spending part of this week touring logging operations and talking with representatives of the Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands.

Read Full Story on PortlandPressHerald.com

Published on Wednesday, Sep 7, 2011

RUMFORD — NewPage Corp. announced in a press release Wednesday that the company has filed for Chapter 11 under the United States bankruptcy Code.

Read full article on Lewiston SunJournal.com

AUGUSTA, Maine – Highlighting the start of Maine’s camping season, the Maine Forest Service, under the Maine Department of Conservation, will again hold an out-of-state firewood exchange this weekend to prevent the importation of dangerous invasive insects to Maine’s forests and to make Maine visitors and residents aware of the problem.

A detail of Maine Forest Service forest rangers will set up an exchange station for two days, Thursday through Friday, May 26-27, at the northbound Kittery rest area, Interstate 95, according to Maine Forest Service (MFS) officials. Not only will the forest rangers exchange out-of-state wood for Maine wood, they also will give out warnings to those who import the banned firewood.

For the third time since the state ban was put in place last year, MFS forest rangers will exchange the prohibited out-of-state firewood for disposal as a way to prevent the spread of two invasive species in particular: Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) and emerald ash borer (EAB).

The threat from both invasive species to North American forests has become a matter of international concern, according to MFS officials. Both insects, already found in near-by states and Canadian provinces, threaten to destroy Maine’s forests.

“It makes a difference, it’s important, and the Maine Legislature has banned out-of-state firewood – we’re trying to make sure these pests do not get a free ride in,” said Dave Struble, MFS state entomologist. “We’re still largely in education mode, and we’ve spent a lot of time and effort getting the word out, working with the state’s promotional agencies, such as the Maine Office of Tourism, and groups such as the Maine Campground Owners Association. We’re getting the word out to visitors, hopefully before they and the bugs get here.”

“Maine’s forest rangers are committed to protecting Maine’s forest resources from threats of all types, including wildfires, abuse and invasive pests,” said Bill Williams, Maine’s chief forest ranger. “We are working closely with our departmental counterparts to ensure that invasive insects do not spread into Maine, which would result in potentially devastating effects on our state’s timber industry. Maine forest rangers will use their law enforcement authority to protect these resources by enforcing this law, as we do with many other statutes.”

The two invasive insects have destroyed millions of acres of trees in other states. ALB has infested the Worcester, Mass., area and recently was discovered in Boston. EAB, which has killed millions of ash trees and threatens Maine’s American Indian basket-making tradition, has been found in New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Maryland, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario.

The first Maine firewood exchange was held September 2010, followed by a second one that October after an emergency order immediately implementing the firewood ban was put in place. Legislation calling for the ban was passed during the 124^th Legislature.

Both exchanges were very successful, and wood samples taken during the exchanges were placed in incubation at the New Hampshire Division of Forest and Lands, which has a hatching laboratory, Struble said. The lab consists of a series of ventilated barrels each with glass-emergence jars and a light trap to monitor what emerges from the wood samples, he said.

So far, no invasive species have emerged, “but we won’t really know until the middle of the summer” when the insects normally appear, Struble said. He is anticipating a final report from the lab at that time.

Similar to the previous exchanges, a detail of six Maine forest rangers will staff the Kittery rest area, according to Lt. Jeffrey Currier, Maine Forest Rangers, who is overseeing the operation. Two large, message signs will direct travelers to the exchange station, he said.

Anyone found transporting out-of-state firewood will be required to exchange their firewood for a comparable amount. The confiscated wood will be bagged in plastic and disposed at a wood biomass facility. Each exchange will be logged, according to Currier.

The exchange may be continued on Saturday, May 28, depending on weather conditions and the volume of previous exchanges, Currier stated.

Struble said that Maine state park campgrounds and private campgrounds, many which open this weekend, also are participating in the preventative effort.

“Most are trying to address the situation by providing wood on site and encouraging campers to buy wood locally,” the state entomologist said. “The message is we don’t want people bringing it in — if you have people bringing it in, burn it immediately.”

What is of greatest concern, Struble said, is the out-of-state firewood brought by people to their private camps. He said it important for neighbors to remind neighbors of the ban to protect Maine’s forests. He said the invasive insects also may be in areas not yet identified as infested, so it is imperative to keep out all non-Maine firewood.

“Our guests are coming into Maine from areas known to be infested,” he said. “We’re working with the assumption that most know not to bring in firewood, and we’re working to reach the others who don’t know this.”

The threat has reached international levels of concern, the state entomologist said. There already is an international joint quarantine on firewood from Canada, and the issue is being raised through such efforts as the Continental Dialogue on Non-Native Forest Insects and Diseases, an international forum of foresters, horticulturists and others spearheaded by The Nature Conservancy, Struble said.

“The step we are taking with the firewood exchange and ban are fully in keeping with regional, national and international concerns,” Struble said. “We are ahead of the curve in that we have regulations in place.”

The state now is operating under an emergency ban, though final regulations are being drafted, Struble said. He said he still is reviewing how the order is working before the final regulations are presented for public comment and are put in place.

“It’s in everyone’s best interest to make sure wood isn’t brought in so it doesn’t destroy Maine’s forests,” Struble said. “If these invasive species get established, it will destroy Maine’s forests, Maine jobs, and destroy something critical to what we are as Mainers.”

For more information on the Maine Forest Service, go to: www.maineforestservice.org

For more information about the Maine out-of-state firewood ban, go to: www.maine.gov/firewood

Market Comments

US NBSK – The low market pulp sales volumes in early 2011, largely due to the weakness in the printing and writing paper production, do not show in the softwood pulp market pricewise. With good demand pull outside the US and with some maintenance down-time already being taken and some more to come, the market has been firm. Even in hardwood, the market has tightened, although the resistance to price increase initiatives has been much stronger than in softwood.  Price increases have been announced separately by several major producers, typically by 30 USD/ton from April 1. Most of that increase attempt is already through in our benchmark. Our PIX NBSK US index moved up by 20.64 USD, or by 2.08%, and closed at 1013.43 USD/ton.

Read More on FOEX.FI

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Market Comments

US NBSKP – In January, both the BSKP and BHKP market pulp shipments to North American destinations were down from January 2010, the former by 8.5% and the latter by 7.0%. The solid demand in China and the global tightness of the BSKP market was, however, the key market driver also in the US. Virtually all major suppliers had announced pricing initiatives from March 1, lifting the price of NBSKP typically to 990 USD/ton. By the 2^nd week of the month, those increases had largely gone through. Our PIX NBSKP US index moved further up by 6.77 USD/ton, or by 0.7%, and closed at 986.13 USD/ton.

Read More on : www.foex.fi