Green Horizons

I have just returned from the 2007 Woodland Owners Conference in Columbia. As has been the case each year, I leave rejuvenated and ready to implement many of the practices I learned and go to work on my farm. I think this is the feeling most of the attendees have when they leave. The other great part of attending the conference is the chance to rekindle friendships with landowners and professionals that I have met over the years as well as the opportunity to share tricks of the trade with new acquaintances.

One recurring theme that I have seen at each of the past three conferences has been that of a concern for the sustainable future of Missouri's private farms and forests. The hard work that many landowners have expended through timber stand improvement (TSI) and wildlife improvement practices on the hundreds of thousands of acres of privately owned forestland throughout the state may be merely a generation or two from extinction. This concern was certainly evident again this year as we had presenters discussing the Forest Legacy Program and the use of conservation easements as strategies for maintaining the forest you have developed well into the future, if not in perpetuity.

As a Tree Farm member, I am concerned when I see a 500- acre woodland that has taken years (if not decades in the case of us weekend woodland warriors) to bring back a neglected forest into a sustainable and productive tree farm, suddenly split into multiple parcels and sold off by heirs that have no interest in maintaining the property as the landowner had during his lifetime. This situation happens all the time and in the future it will be a real threat to the forest industry, wildlife habitat and environmentally sensitive areas as sprawl and growth from metropolitan areas create a financial temptation too great for some to pass up.

As a Certified Financial Planner Practitioner specializing in estate planning, I have a professional curiosity about how senior landowners feel about what will happen to the property and all of their hard work at their death. Second or later generation Tree Farm members express a concern about having to split inherited property among siblings or other relatives (bloodsuckers as one attendee put it) that do not share the same passion they do for maintaining the property as a tree farm. I have spoken with many landowners over the past three years and without exception, each has echoed the above concerns. I thank each of the attendees that have shared their concerns and stories with me in helping create this article.

What can be done and what strategies are available to the landowner to help keep the property in production and not risk creating dissension among the heirs for years to come? That's a very hard and complicated question to answer and certainly one that must be dealt with on an individual basis based on your specific goals and objectives.

Upon Hank's invitation, I and fellow woodland owner, David Watson, will become regular contributors to Green Horizons on estate planning and related topics. We will cover various strategies through hypothetical scenarios based upon discussions with woodland owners. It is our hope that these articles, along with presentations by experts at future events and workshops, will provide each of you with enough information to begin the process of protecting your legacy in the way you see fit.