Syracuse.com - Timberland company buys 28,000 acres on Tug Hill

[HuntingNY-News]

It's one of the largest private property sales in the history of the area. The sale price was $12.4 million. From what I can tell, no noteworthy changes are in store for the multitude of outdoors enthusiasts who in the past have used the land and its waters.(See locator map.)

One of the largest private property sales in the history of the Tug Hill quietly went down this summer, with no news releases or press conferences.

In August, the Cortland-based Farm East, LLC, sold nearly 28,000 acres of wooded, undeveloped land to Salmon River Timberlands, which is a subsidiary of Woodwise Land Company, LLC. The sale price was more than $12.4 million.

The land, located in the southwest corner of the Tug Hill region, is not all connected and spreads across four counties — Oswego, Jefferson, Lewis and Oneida. The majority of the property (more than 19,300 acres) is located in Oswego County.

From what I can tell, no noteworthy changes are in store for the multitude of outdoors enthusiasts who in the past have used the land and its waters.

Woodwise, a Scottsville-based business, owns more than 70,000 wooded acres in three states, with the majority of it in New York. According to the company’s website, Woodwise is “a private timberland investment company that actively seeks to purchase high-quality timberlands throughout New York, New Hampshire, Vermont and the rest of the Northeast.

“We firmly believe in the principles of sustainable forestry. We manage our woodlands under these standards to insure wood, water, and recreation for current and future generations,” the website says.

Matt Smith, director of operations for the company, said he’s been in touch with the 14 private rod and gun/hunting clubs that were previously leasing land for hunting and other purposes from Farm East. He said all those leases have since been renewed with his company. He also noted there’s some prime waterways that anglers have enjoyed in the past on the land — most notably, sections of the Mad River, a high-quality trout stream. All previous public access will remain, he said.

Smith acknowledged that there’s also more than 11 miles of snowmobile trails that course through the property and that no one has contacted him yet about their use this winter. However, he noted the trails mostly cross land being leased by the sportsmen’s clubs and that they would probably be the ones to contact.

He said the land offers a wide variety of timber, including hard and sugar maple, black cherry, birch “and lots of hemlock and ash.” He noted the company employs three full-time foresters to help manage its land.

Marty Webster, of the Oswego County real property tax office, said he’s heard the company is “very high tech, using the best technology and scientific approaches available” for timberland management.

“The price paid shows what timberland is worth in that neck of the woods,” he added.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog