Green Horizons

Your Family Forest Heritage: Passion, Preparation, and Planning is the theme for the 2009 Missouri Tree Farm Conference set for April 3-4 at the Stoney Creek Inn in Columbia.

If you own and care for forest land, you probably have strong feelings about leaving your land in good condition for the future. Keeping family forests intact after the older generation passes is one of the most urgent issues facing family forest owners today. According to the National Woodland Owners Survey, 80 percent of the country’s forest landowners say their primary goal is to pass their property intact to the next generation. But, most do not have a succession plan for the forest property they have worked so hard to develop and maintain.

One reason for this: Passing property from one generation to the next is legally and emotionally challenging. A smooth transfer takes not only passion, but preparation and planning.

We are extremely fortunate in Missouri to have not one, but two financial planners who not only understand the complex process of estate planning, but are Tree Farmers themselves! David and Kirk will lead a Friday afternoon in exploring the often overlooked emotionally challenging aspects of transferring your legacy and set the stage for presenting the legal aspects at the Saturday conference.

Green Horizon subscribers will be receiving a conference brochure in January. But, if you can’t wait till then to register, call Glenda at (573) 634-3252 or go online http://www.moforest.org.